Multi-Age Cluster Class (MACC) (or Middle Age Cluster Class in Coquitlam ) was originally a Vancouver gifted education program meant to enrich the regular curriculum for students in grades 4-7 (currently up to Grade 8 in the Coquitlam middle school model). The program opened its doors in 1994, one year after University Hill/UBC's much-heralded Transition Program for accelerated learners, to which some MACC graduates are accepted each year. The admission process for MACC involves several steps where a child's suitability for the program is evaluated. A student is referred by their home school, challenge-class teacher, gifted case manager, or parent for consideration for admission. In Vancouver, students generally are asked to take the Insight test of cognitive skills which gives the selection committee a deeper understanding of a student's core skills. Children seen as suitable candidates are invited to attend the Pre-MACC Experience, a two-day session in Vancouver and Coquitlam. After that, students who are seen as candidates are invited to spend one or two days in the classroom at the school they would potentially attend. Offers of admission are sometimes contingent on this final step. In Surrey, the process is slightly different, as candidates only visit the classroom that they will be in for one day. The MACC program, despite its various permutations, universally emphasizes the creation of lifelong, autonomous learners who seek knowledge in an active and dynamic learning environment clustered with other high-ability learners. Teachers are chosen based on experience, ideally with course-work, training and/or experience working with high-ability learners. Many teachers have gone on to national recognition for their accomplishments while working in MACC, most notably the former longtime Tecumseh MACC teacher Ms. Marie Chomyn, who received the Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence in 2013, as well as 2013 Governor General Award co-recipients (and former MACC teachers) Ms. Graeme Cotton and Ms. Romy Cooper for their contributions to the teaching of issues related to national heritage. The current teachers of the MACC are Ms. Cantelon of Tecumseh, Ms. Taylor of Osler, Mr. Webb of Osler and Madame Barber of Kerrisdale. In addition, many MACC graduates have gone on to national and international success, including Bryan Wong, twice nominated as a member of Forbes Magazine's "Top 30 Under 30" entrepreneurs.
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Location
Currently, there are three schools with Multi-Age Cluster Classes in Vancouver, British Columbia administered by the Vancouver School Board (VSB). The two Vancouver schools currently offering English MACC programs are Tecumseh Elementary School, with Ms. Cantelon and a grade 5/6/7 split and Sir William Osler Elementary School, with Mr. Webb teaching a 4/5 split and Ms. Taylor teaching a 6/7 split. Additionally, Kerrisdale Elementary School currently offers a 5/6/7 split french Immersion MACC program (FI MACC) with Madame Barber. The FI MACC was previously at General Gordon Elementary School. There were previous incarnations of MACC at Lord Nelson Elementary School, Queen Mary Elementary School, and David Livingstone Elementary School, but the program has shrunk slightly and relocated to its current base schools over the years due to a combination of VSB cutbacks, seismic upgrades, and perceived population shifts. In addition, there are other MACC programs outside Vancouver, such as Berkshire Park Elementary School (North Surrey), Hyland Elementary School (Central Surrey), Bayridge Elementary School (South Surrey), and Crescent Park Elementary School (South Surrey), in Surrey, which is in the Lower Mainland region. All four Surrey programs are grades 5-7. Surrey is currently in consideration of adding a high school program. There also used to be a high school MACC program in Kitsilano Secondary School. The vast majority of Vancouver MACC graduates currently attend competitive mini-school programs at a variety of area high schools. The Tri-Cities (Port Coquitlam, Coquitlam, Port Moody) has three MACC equipped schools, namely Citadel Middle School, Hillcrest Middle School, and Kwayhquitlum Middle School. As of 2016 the Teachers at "Kway" are Mr. Cupit, Mrs. Stoffberg and Mr. Ellis. The students are part of the Thunderbird and Bears teams respectively, and are well-known throughout the school for their band, choir, athletics, leadership, speech-writing and mathematics competition efforts. In 2014, two MACC sites were added in Burnaby (School District 41) at Capitol Hill Elementary School. There are currently two classes (Grade 4 & 5 and Grade 6 & 7) and the Burnaby School District is planning to add one more MACC site in south Burnaby, if possible, in the fall of 2015.
Four Pillars (Curriculum)
In the MACC curriculum, there are Four 'Main Pillars' that the program places emphasis on. These include Autonomous Learning, Numeracy, Literacy, and Project Based Learning. Report Cards are handed out accordingly within these 4 categories, with subcategories such as (Autonomous Learning) Work Habits, Personal Responsibility, Active Learning, and Social Responsibility. Within Numeracy, the subcategories include the student's Numeracy Grade Level, and their respective Numeracy Enrichment. Within Literacy, students are assigned a Reading Grade, a Writing Grade, and their respective Literacy Enrichment. Within Project Based Learning, the subcategories include Critical Thinking, Research, Time Management, and Products.
Autonomous Learning
The word "autonomous" means to be independent, self-governing, efficient and to be able to learn by yourself and be a self-motivated learner. This is a very important life-skill that is heavily emphasized in this program. The students need to be autonomous, as they are not always reminded of due dates, or to take notes for their projects. This flexible learning style works well for self-motivated, creative, and independent students because it allows them to set their own goals. This benefits students and general society because this teaches students how to become leaders in their own learning. The learning system is much more different because students set their own pace, which means that everyone in the class can be in different areas of the curriculum. Many faster students accelerate through concept-based units of Math, so that some Grade Sixes could be potentially learning anything from Grade Six to Grade Twelve Math.
Numeracy
In the MACC classes, students work on self-paced curriculum work in addition to problem solving and contests. That way they can work at their own pace. More emphasis is placed on problem-solving to promote critical thinking skills. Some classes have 'individual math work' but in small groups where everyone's skill is more or less the same. Teachers believe that in doing so, this will bring up a lot of interesting math discussion, which they think is useful in learning math. Also because of all the work MACC students/teachers spend on problem-solving type math, they score high in math competitions. Last year in Coquitlam (2016), 3 Kwayhquitlum students 'aced' the Gauss Math competition for grade 7 (score of 150).
Project Based Learning
In Project Based Learning, or PBL, students learn both of their selves as learners and of their topic in depth. The three projects are Science fair in term one, Heritage fair in term two, and Eminent person in term three. These projects are the biggest thing that students will do while in MACC. However, the Heritage fair has not been done in some MACC classes, such as the one in Hillcrest Middle school. The Science Fair is a choice with any topic into an experiment, an innovative, or a research project. The experiment is a term long project when you just record the results, an innovative is where you research something then create it. And finally, the research project is just pure research on your topic. Heritage fair has the requirements that you have to do something at least 20 years ago and it has to be Canadian. For eminent person project, the grade fives don't do it but the grade sixes do a Canadian and the grade 7's can anyone with proof of eminence. The eminent person has to be dead or finished their career.
Literacy
The MACC Program offers a variety of different literacy activities, including novel studies, poem analysis, essay writing, persuasive writing, story writing, graphic novel writing, report writing, play writing, and many others. Many of these are for preparation for high school, doing report writing for Science Fair and Heritage Fair.
Individual Education Plan (IEP)
In the MACC program, each student along with their parent(s) and teachers, personalizes his/her goals in his/her IEP. It summarizes their goals in the four pillars of the MACC program: Literacy, Numeracy, Autonomous Learning and Project-Based Learning. Report cards are also partially based on what the students have done to achieve these goals, unlike regular report cards.