Executive Summary
- In 1984, the Province of Manitoba’s Department of Education implemented a system to account for spending on public schools, the Financial Reporting and Accounting in Manitoba Education (FRAME) report.
- Largely patterned on reporting systems in Alberta and Minnesota, FRAME requires school divisions to utilize the same format in reporting revenues and expenditures.
- The FRAME report is divided into Operating Funds and Capital Funds. Operating Funds are further sub-divided into individual line items.
- While this report makes it possible to compare school divisions budgets accurately, it only measures inputs and ignores outcomes.
- While FRAME provides an excellent system for holding school divisions financially accountable, no such tool exists to hold them accountable for student achievement.
- A new reporting format modelled on FRAME should be implemented. It would require school divisions to utilize the same format for reporting student achievement.
- The new report would be called the Student Overall Achievement Report (SOAR).
- Categories would include standards tests results, teacher assessment of students, graduation rates, attrition and attendance.
