The Center for Literacy

Peterborough Native Learning Centre Action Research Project
Peterborough, Ontario

Development of a Wholistic Accountability Framework for the Native Literacy Stream

Team Members

Summary

Wasauksing Adult Learning Centre
Parry Island, ON

The Peterborough Action Research Team developed and implemented a culturally relevant accountability framework for use in Native literacy programs. This new framework was created by combining existing measurement methods required by the province with the findings of recent research on success indicators in Canadian Aboriginal schools.

Issue or Concern

Native literacy programs in Ontario currently have tools developed by government to report on their activities. However, these tools are worded in a confusing manner, may not be consistently administered, and leave no room for the stories of what was done, or why rolling out traditional literacy services on reserves encounters additional layers of complexity. We believe that when our sister Native literacy programs are given the right tools for reporting on their activities and when they fully understand them, these programs will prove to be highly successful, rather than appearing to be non-compliant, putting them in jeopardy of losing their funding.

Action research includes corn soup and a scone.

As an example, one Native literacy program was given 57 corrective action items following a visit by a government monitor. These fiscal and administrative improvements were expected to be completed in a short time frame, although some of the items being monitored do not reflect the reality of adult literacy service delivery in the Native community.

Outcomes

Final Report: [Summary] [Full Report]