Once again, little Jean-Marc didn't do his homework.
At home, no one could help him finish his exercises. His
parents were too busy trying to make ends meet. Like 36.6%
of young Québecers who live in an underprivileged
environment, Jean-Marc is at high risk for joining the
ranks of dropouts.
The Ministry of Education of Québec decided to strike
a major blow with its strategy to “Encourage the
success of secondary students in underprivileged environments”.
The project, which will cost $125M over five years and
bring together close to 200 schools and ten researchers,
represents a tremendous challenge for Michel Janocz, associate
professor in the School of Psychological Education and
head of the scientific team responsible for evaluating
it. “Living in an underprivileged environment considerably
increases the risk of failure at school. When there’s
no money and the parents toil just to stay alive, they
often don't have the time or energy to provide appropriate
support to their children,” he explains. Inadequate
housing, lack of food and a thousand other worries can
put children’s performance at school on the back
burner. Added to that, an underprivileged socio-economic
environment is often accompanied by a poor social cohesion,
unlike more comfortable surroundings. “In areas where
social cohesion is strong, people tend to help each other
and take care of the neighbours’ children. In poor
neighbourhoods, fewer adults can spend time helping children.”
Potential dropouts are hard to spot. Some children can
present a risk from primary school onward. But the Ministry
of Education has decided to concentrate its energies on
the critical period of adolescence, by trying to improve
the quality of secondary schools: “If you improve
the quality of a school, you always encourage the kids
to be successful,” notes Mr. Janocz. A school’s
value comes from much more than just its teachers: the
general climate, the support provided by the community
and organizational practices are just some of the ingredients
that the strategy should put on its menu.
For the researchers, the first step in the project is to
help a group of target schools identify their strengths
and weaknesses through questionnaires, discussion groups
and individual interviews with the children, staff members
and parents. Some pupils will even be individually monitored
for five years. Every dimension of the school experience
is being put under the magnifying glass: the questions
deal with everything from educational practices and the
students’ progress to the perception of work relations
between management and staff.
Researcher: Michel Janocz
Telephone: (514) 343-6111, poste 2513
Email: michel.janocz@umontreal.ca
Funding: Ministry of Education of Québec
