Education
RDC awards Danny Rode with Honorary Degree – Brittany van Vlaanderen earns Governor General’s Academic Medal
RDC celebrates graduates and award recipients from class of 2021 Red Deer, June 3, 2021 – On June 4, 2021, Red Deer College will celebrate the graduates from its
57th Convocation through a virtual ceremony.
“Convocation is always such an important and emotional time, and that is especially true this year,” says Dr. Peter Nunoda, President. “These graduates made the choice to participate and to complete their education, despite formidable odds and circumstances that were undoubtedly different than they had envisioned. By rising to the challenge and earning their credential, each of these graduates has shown incredible resiliency and dedication, and I hope they are truly proud of all they have achieved.”
As part of the virtual ceremony for Convocation 2021, RDC is announcing two special award recipients. Brittany van Vlaanderen is receiving the Governor General’s Academic Medal (Collegiate Bronze Level) for her academic excellence. Brittany graduated with a Social Work diploma, and she earned a GPA of 4.0 and four grades of A+ in the final year of her program.
RDC is continuing an important tradition this year, with the granting of an Honorary Degree to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of social, cultural or economic development in a way that has had significant impact on RDC, central Alberta and beyond. Danny Rode is the seventh recipient of the Honorary Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies Degree in recognition of his 50-year career as a sports journalist, where he has shown astounding commitment to RDC Athletics and our student-athletes, helping to place RDC on the map as one of the best colleges in Canada.
“Recognizing special award recipients is always a meaningful part of Convocation celebrations, and I would like to personally congratulate both of these individuals,” says Nunoda. “Brittany van Vlaanderen has demonstrated excellence and success of the highest level in her program, which is a tremendous way to transition to the next phase of her life and career.”
“Danny Rode, our Honorary Degree recipient, has spent five decades sharing the stories of our student-athletes, coaches and teams. He has earned the reputation as someone who has never missed a home game – in 50 years – which is unheard of, and speaks volumes to his unparalleled dedication to athletics and this community.”
This Convocation represents another special milestone for the College, as the 1,619 graduates from 2021 represent the final class from Red Deer College, before it transitions to exciting future as Red Deer Polytechnic.
“There is no question that this Convocation is special on several levels,” Nunoda says. “I truly wish that we could gather this year and that I could shake the hands of each and every graduate, so I could tell them how proud I am. Given the circumstances, we have put in every effort to ensure graduates feel our pride and a sense of community through the virtual ceremony and our social media celebration. The class of 2021 represents a milestone in the history of our institution, and they now transition to being an essential part of our vibrant group of alumni.”
The virtual ceremony for RDC’s 57th Convocation, as well as a virtual ceremony celebrating the Class of 2020, are each available at rdc.ab.ca/convocation. The College will be celebrating graduates on our social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter) throughout the early part of June 2021.
Red Deer
Judge upholds sanctions against Red Deer Catholic school trustee who opposed LGBT agenda
From LifeSiteNews
Monique LaGrange was ousted last December from the Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools’ board for comparing the LGBT agenda targeting children to brainwashing.
A Canadian judge ruled that a school board was justified to place harsh sanctions on a Catholic school trustee forced out of her position because she opposed extreme gender ideology and refused to undergo LGBT “sensitivity” training.
Justice Cheryl Arcand-Kootenay of the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta ruled Thursday that the Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools (RDCRS) Board’s sanctions placed against former trustee Monique LaGrange will stand.
LaGrange had vowed to fight the school board in court, and it remains to be seen if she can take any further actions after the decision by Judge Arcand-Kootenay.
The judge ruled that the RDCRS’s policies in place for all trustees, which the board contended were breached, were “logical, thorough, and grounded in the facts that were before the Board at the time of their deliberations.”
As reported by LifeSiteNews, the RDCRS board voted 3-1 last December to disqualify LaGrange after she compared the LGBT agenda targeting kids with that of “brainwashing” Nazi propaganda. As a result of being voted out, LaGrange later resigned from her position.
The former school board trustee initially came under fire in September 2023 when she posted an image showing kids in Nazi Germany waving swastika flags during a parade to social media, with the bottom of the post showing an image of kids waving LGBT “Pride” flags along with the text: “Brainwashing is brainwashing.”
After her post went viral, calls for her to step down grew from leftist Alberta politicians and others. This culminated in her removal as director of the Alberta Catholic School Trustees’ Association (ACSTA).
In September 2023, the RDCRS passed a motion to mandate that LaGrange undergo “LGBTQ+” and holocaust “sensitivity” training for her social media post.
LaGrange, however, refused to apologize for the meme or undergo “sensitivity” training.
She had argued that the RDCRS had no right to issue sanctions against her because they were not based on the Education Act or code of conduct. Arcand-Kootenay did not agree with her, saying code of conduct violations allow for multiple sanctions to be placed against those who violate them.
Education
‘Grade inflation’ gives students false sense of their academic abilities
From the Fraser Institute
The average entrance grade at the University of British Columbia is now 87 per cent, up from 70 per cent only 20 years ago. While this is partly because the supply of available university spots has not kept pace with growing demand, it’s also likely that some B.C. high schools are inflating their students’ grades.
Suppose you’re scheduled for major heart surgery. Shortly before your surgery begins, you check into your surgeon’s background and are pleased to discover your surgeon had a 100 per cent average throughout medical school. But then you learn that every student at the same medical school received 100 per cent in their courses, too. Now you probably don’t feel quite as confident in your surgeon.
This is the ugly reality of “grade inflation” where the achievements of everyone, including the most outstanding students, are thrown into question. Fortunately, grade inflation is (currently) rare in medical schools. But in high schools, it’s a growing problem.
In fact, grade inflation is so prevalent in Ontario high schools that the University of Waterloo’s undergraduate engineering program uses an adjustment factor when evaluating student applications—for example, Waterloo might consider a 95 per cent average from one school the equivalent of an 85 per cent average from another school.
Grade inflation is a problem in other provinces as well. The average entrance grade at the University of British Columbia is now 87 per cent, up from 70 per cent only 20 years ago. While this is partly because the supply of available university spots has not kept pace with growing demand, it’s also likely that some B.C. high schools are inflating their students’ grades.
Sadly, grade inflation is so rampant these days that some school administrators don’t even try to hide it. For example, earlier this year all students at St. Maximilian Kolbe Catholic High School in Aurora, Ontario, received perfect marks on their midterm exams in two biology courses and one business course—not because these students had mastered these subjects but because the York Catholic District School Board had been unable to find a permanent teacher at this school.
The fact that a school board would use grade inflation to compensate for inadequate instruction in high school tells us everything we need to know about the abysmal academic standards in many schools across Canada.
And make no mistake, student academic performance is declining. According to results from the Programme for International Assessment (PISA), math scores across Canada declined from 532 points in 2003 to 497 points in 2022 (PISA equates 20 points to one grade level). In other words, Canadian students are nearly two years behind on their math skills then they were 20 years ago. While their high school marks are going up, their actual performance is going down.
And that’s the rub—far from correcting a problem, grade inflation makes the problem much worse. Students with inflated grades get a false sense of their academic abilities—then experience a rude shock when they discover they aren’t prepared for post-secondary education. (According to research by economists Ross Finnie and Felice Martinello, students with the highest high school averages usually experience the largest drop in grades in university). Consequently, many end up dropping out.
Grade inflation even hurts students who go on to be academically successful because they suffer the indignity of having their legitimate achievements thrown into doubt by the inflated grades of other students. If we want marks to have meaning, we must end the practise of grade inflation. We do our students no favours when we give them marks they don’t really deserve.
Just as our confidence in a surgeon would go down if we found out that every student from the same medical school had a 100 per cent average, so we should also question the value of diplomas from high schools where grade inflation is rampant.
Author:
-
Business1 day ago
Carbon tax bureaucracy costs taxpayers $800 million
-
Brownstone Institute1 day ago
The Most Devastating Report So Far
-
ESG21 hours ago
Can’t afford Rent? Groceries for your kids? Trudeau says suck it up and pay the tax!
-
Daily Caller20 hours ago
Los Angeles Passes ‘Sanctuary City’ Ordinance In Wake Of Trump’s Deportation Plan
-
COVID-191 day ago
Dr. McCullough praises RFK Jr., urges him to pull COVID shots from the market
-
John Stossel19 hours ago
Green Energy Needs Minerals, Yet America Blocks New Mines
-
Business2 days ago
Ottawa’s avalanche of spending hasn’t helped First Nations
-
MAiD1 day ago
Over 40% of people euthanized in Ontario lived in poorest parts of the province: government data