Adaptive Dimension refers to the concept of making adjustments in approved educational programs to accommodate diversity in student learning needs. It includes those practices teachers undertake to make curriculum materials and topics, instruction, and the learning environment meaningful and appropriate for each student. Adaptations are made to help students achieve the objectives of the course or program (see Appendix A).
Alternative Education Program refers to a qualitatively different educational program designed by the school division to meet the unique needs of students who are unable to complete the courses in the Regular Education Program. There are two kinds of Alternative Education Programs:
Assessment refers to the collection of information for the purpose of making judgements about student learning progress.
Common Essential Learnings are a set of six interrelated categories of understandings, values, skills, and processes that are considered important as foundations for learning in all school subjects. The Common Essential Learnings together with the Required Areas of Study provide the vehicle through which the Goals of Education for Saskatchewan may be achieved.
Conditions of Approval refers to statements made by the Regional Director of Education or the Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction that determine the circumstances under which a course or program may or may not be offered. These statements are listed on the approval page of the course or program.
Core Curriculum consists of four components: the Required Areas of Study and the Foundational Objectives of the curricula; the Common Essential Learnings; the Adaptive Dimension and Student Evaluation.
Course Code refers to the four-digit number used to identify courses entered into the Student Record System in the Registrar's Unit. These codes are assigned to courses for the purposes of record keeping, in order to produce student transcripts.
Credits refer to the minimum requirements for graduation that students in the Regular Education Program and the Alternative Grade 10, 11, or 12 Programs must accumulate.
Domains are the organizers used to describe appropriate knowledge, skills and abilities of a Functional Integrated Program that have been designed to meet the unique needs of a student.
Education Act is the legislation that ensures all children have the right to a program of instruction consistent with their educational needs. The legislation requires learning activities be planned to accommodate individual differences. The Act empowers the Minister to provide curricula for courses of study authorized under the Regulations for the K - 12 education system.
Evaluation involves comparing assessment information against some standard such as curriculum foundational and learning objectives to make a judgement or a decision.
Expiry Date is the school year that is the last year of the five year cycle.
Foundational Objectives refer to broad statements of desired outcomes that all students are to achieve through facilitated learning in a particular curriculum.
Functional Integrated Program refers to a program that has been designed to meet the needs of a student with intellectual or multiple disabilities. It encourages the development of independence through activities presented in a functional, community-based context.
Goals are broad general statements that indicate what students are expected to achieve as a result of instruction in a course or program. Goals provide the focus for instruction and the basis for decision making.
Instructional Strategies and methods are the teaching processes and approaches chosen by teachers to create learning environments to help students achieve the objectives of a course.
Locally Developed Course of Study refers to a course designed at the local school or school division level to meet specific student needs. It must be developed at a level of rigor consistent with provincially-developed courses and must be approved by the Department.
Locally Modified Course of Study refers to a course that has been changed at the school or school division level and contains fifty percent of the Foundational Objectives of the provincially-developed course and fifty percent of locally-developed Foundational Objectives.
Personal Program Plan refers to a written educational plan developed collaboratively for students with severe disabilities. It includes such information as pertinent personal and education data, identification of student's strength and needs, long-term goals and short-term objectives, assignment of responsibility for carrying out the plan, and a process to review the plan.
Pilot Year refers to Year 1 of the five year cycle for approval for a Locally Developed Course of Study, a Locally Modified Course of Study, or Alternative Grade 10, 11 or 12 Program.
Program Evaluation is a formal process of gathering and analyzing information about some aspect of a school program in order to make a decision or to communicate the merits of the program to decision makers or other appropriate groups.
Qualitatively Different implies a program design, including the content, instructional approaches, resources, and educational setting, that has been developed to accommodate student needs that cannot be addressed through the Regular Education Program.
Regular Education Program refers to provincially-developed course offerings and include Locally Developed Courses of Study and Locally Modified Courses of Study.
Required Areas of Study consist of seven areas of study that are required for all students in the Regular Education Program: English/French language arts, mathematics, arts education, health education, physical education, science, and social studies.
Special Education refers to the provision of particular services and programs that make it possible for students with advanced development or disabilities to receive an education commensurate with their potential and appropriate to their level of development. To address the educational requirements of the individual student with special needs, modifications may be required in content of course and programs, instructional methods, materials, equipment and facilities.
Standing Granted (SG) is used for out-of-province evaluations and is given when a course taken outside Saskatchewan is considered equivalent to a provincially-approved course.
Waiving a Prerequisite refers to a process that allows a student to proceed to the next level without having taken the prerequisite course.
Waiving a required credit refers to a process that allows a student to complete a grade without having taken the course. It is used very rarely in out-of-province evaluations and only in cases where other courses compensate (i.e. waiving the Science 10 requirement when a student has taken more than two sciences at the 11 or 12 level).
Year of Commencement of Pilot is the school year that is the first year of the five year cycle.