In 2015, the Canadian School Boards Association (CSBA) set out to create a cross-country portrait of the structure of school boards, as well as general information about the Canadian public education system. The information provided was compiled by the school boards in the various jurisdictions as well as from ministry of education reports. It has been used extensively to demonstrate the difference in structure and services provided by governing school boards and provincial / territorial associations. For the first time, we were able to compare student enrollment, the number of school boards and trustee/commissioner representation across the country.
In 2018, another research initiative was established in order to further understand the specific demographics of trustees serving our public school boards in our local communities. We hoped to develop a clear picture of the average person who represents their community on a school board.
- âge,
- le niveau d'éducation,
- le nombre d'heures qu'ils consacrent aux affaires scolaires,
- la répartition par sexe,
- s'ils étaient parents,
- leur profession ; et
- financial compensation in this role.
In contrast to the occasional portrait painted in partisan politics, we have discovered that representation on Canadian school boards is diverse, with a cross section of citizens, educated professionals, former educators, with years of different experiences and guidance to offer. While serving on any kind of board is difficult with a young family many trustees are also parents of children in the education system. The data show that the leadership provided by school boards is fully representative of the communities they serve.
In some jurisdictions, similar surveys had been completed in previous years and in those cases, we used the data already available. However, for the majority of trustees surveyed, the survey was administered by the provincial/territorial association which we compiled to make a cross-country comparison. Over 1300 answers or over 37% of Canadian trustees in nine jurisdictions were compiled.
Il est important de noter qu'il n'existe pas de ministère fédéral de l'éducation et que, par conséquent, la structure de chaque province peut varier. La méthode d'obtention de ces données varie selon les sources, des associations provinciales de conseils scolaires aux ministères provinciaux de l'éducation. Les données énumérées dans le Structure de l'éducation du rapport a été collectée en 2015, tandis que les données énumérées dans la partie Démographie des administrateurs a été collectée en 2018.
Le rapport complet est disponible ici :