Funding type Public Grades K-12 | Superintendent Curtis Brown Website www.ssdec.nt.ca | |
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Chairperson Ann Pischinger (Chair, South Slave Divisional Education Council) Language English, Chipewyan, South Slavey, French, Cree | ||
The South Slave Divisional Education Council (SSDEC) is the organizational entity responsible for the administration of public schools within the South Slave Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. Its responsibility includes all schools within the five communities of the South Slave (with the exception of École Boréale in Hay River). Specifically, it is responsible for schools in the communities of Fort Resolution, Fort Smith, K'atl'odeche First Nation, Hay River, and Lutselk'e. Although considered part of the South Slave Region by other departments of the Government of the Northwest Territories, the communities of Fort Providence and Kakisa are served by the Deh Cho Divisional Education Council and not the SSDEC.
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Organizational relationships
The South Slave Divisional Education Council (SSDEC) was created in 1991 alongside five local District Education Authorities (DEAs) in each of the major communities of the South Slave Region. These five DEAs are responsible for setting Council goals and priorities, while the SSDEC is responsible for implementing their decisions within the schools. Both the SSDEC and the five community DEAs are granted power by the Government of the Northwest Territories through the Education Act.
Schools
Communities without schools
While technically within the regional mandate of the SSDEC, the following communities do not host schools for a variety of reasons:
Leadership for Literacy Initiative
In an effort to improve literacy outcomes in the region, the SSDEC began implementation of its Leadership for Literacy initiative in 2007. The initiative placed a Literacy Coach in each of the eight schools in the region, providing job-imbedded professional development to teachers and training them on research-based skills and strategies to aid in student achievement. The initiative has also moved away from the summative evaluation of students in favour of more frequent formative evaluations so that "instruction can be tailored to the needs to individual students".
Since its implementation, the initiative has seen literacy scores across the region rise significantly, from "less than 50 per cent" in 2005-2006 to 76 per cent in 2011-2012. The Canadian norm is 77 per cent.
Aboriginal Languages
The SSDEC is involved with aboriginal-language instruction in each of its five communities. According to a report published by the Government of the Northwest Territories, the SSDEC employs 18 aboriginal-language instructors who supply over 700 students in the region with daily instruction. Specifically, students are instructed in Cree, South Slavey, and / or Chipewyan, depending on where they live. Typically, students from Hay River and K'atl'odeche First Nation are instructed in South Slavey, while students from Fort Resolution and Lutsel K'e are instructed in Chipewyan. Students in Fort Smith receive instruction in both Cree and Chipewyan.
In March 2012, the Council produced, in collaboration with a group of community leaders from Fort Resolution, a Chipewyan-to-English dictionary for the purposes of promoting the learning of the language within the communities of the South Slave region. A digital freeware copy of the dictionary is available online through the SSDEC website.