This page was set up by parents and alumni to provide accurate information and real-life experiences about Multi-Age Clustered Class (MACC).

MACC is a district Special Education program created 30 years ago to serve the needs of the small, yet special group of learners with Advanced Learning Needs.

The information contained here aims to help prospective parents understand and seek the right support for their children. It also serves to counteract misinformation offered by VSB since it announced its plans for MACC’s cancellation in late 2021. Questions or comments? Reach us at [email protected]

What we want

1. To provide equity for this vulnerable group of students served by the MACC Program.
2. To recognize that VSB’s announced plans are not a change. It is a cancellation of MACC. Because this is a cancellation of a district program, the Trustees must be involved.
3. To participate fully in any evaluation or decision on the future of the MACC program. This requires including stakeholders such as MACC alumni families, Gifted Ed academic experts and psychologist(s) familiar with assessing these students’ learning profiles.
4. To ensure that, until there is reliable and sufficient data on the impact of the GEC pilot, MACC classes continue. This requires VSB Learning Services continuing to accept school-based referrals for the MACC intake process for Grades 4 to 7.
5. To support transparency, equity and inclusion, to return to the in-person group assessment following the format of information session, referral submission, and multi-day / multi-disciplinary assessment conducted by a group of gifted ed experts.

What is MACC

MACC is a multi-year program designed to help Grade 4-7 students who are neurodiverse and highly able learners, with a ‘P’ learning designation (Gifted) from the Ministry of Education. MACC enables autonomous learning and provides a community of like-minded peers for this vulnerable group, in line with best practices in Gifted Education.

According to the Ministry of Education, giftedness is a Special Needs designation for which districts are required to provide accommodation.

MACC is a special-needs program, not a choice program, and being gifted is not a choice.

Most MACC students have not found success in a mainstream classroom, and many also struggle with issues such as perfectionism, anxiety, ADHD and depression.

They receive both academic challenge and social-emotional supports built into the MACC curriculum. Like all VSB Special Ed. ("Learning Services") programs, MACC students are referred by school-based teams.

From parents of MACC students and alum:

When my daughter entered MACC, a fog lifted and she became engaged & challenged by school again.

MACC encouraged my daughter's passion for learning, boosted her self-confidence & gave her skills for navigating diff. social settings in high school. This program is essential for the kids who really need it.

We live in Strathcona. My daughter takes a school bus that picks her up at 7:40 am each day. She hates the bus ride, which often takes 75 min each way, but is willing to do it because she is thriving in MACC.

2 of my children attended MACC, which offers a safe, multi-year space for special needs children. Its elimination will abandon those who benefit from the social, emotional & intellectual support provided by MACC.

My son participated in VSB's challenge programs that were offered before he went into MACC. He did not enjoy them and resented being ‘pulled out’ of his regular class for weeks at a time. Our son thrived in the MACC program and I’d highly recommend it for special needs gifted learners.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92PyKTNaf2U

Updates

• April 12, 2023 - MACC placements are being offered this week. We are hearing from families that have NOT been offered placements because their kids have not shown they’ve exceled in the regular classroom.
• March 7, 2023 - Trustees invited by MACC parent to attend MACC Heritage Fair but only one attends
• March 2, 2023 - Trustee Faridkot, Josh Zhang meet with Save MACC & UTP parents
• Feb 2023 - We learn that MACC is open for intake for 2023/24 school year. The deadline for referral submission is February 10th.
• Jan 2023 - Trustee Faridkot meet with VSB, receives misinformation.
• Dec 2022 - The 1st pilot Gifted Enrichment Centre (GEC) is completed but feedback is not great.
• Dec 2022 - Tecumseh MACC class is severely under capacity at 13 students.
• Nov 2022 - New Trustees are inaugurated. Parents hopeful that new trustees will step up to ask tough questions about MACC’s planned cancellation.
• June 2022 - FOI request on actual numbers shows planned under-capacity for 3 of the 4 MACC classes.
• Late May 2022 - VSB contacts parents with placement offers for Fall 2022. VSB reverses decision and reopens Grade 4 intake.
• Feb 24, 2022 - Session with experts share insights into why MACC is worth saving.

What has changed

VSB is introducing new short-term enrichment centres (“GECs”) to replace MACC, but says it is a "revisioning" of MACC. VSB is calling this a “change” instead of what it is: Cancelling MACC and replacing it with a new program. This is significant: Calling it a “change” doesn’t allow VSB Trustees to vote on it.  These are two entirely different programs, designed to meet the needs of separate groups of students. There should be room for both, without sacrificing MACC for the children who need it.

For 30 years, MACC has transformed children’s lives and allowed them to go on to success in high school and beyond. We are advocating because this group of children, and future students, still need the services MACC provides to support them: not just academically, but socially, mentally and emotionally.

All MACC families involved, current and past, have been overwhelmingly and vocally united in their opposition to the VSB’s plan. However, we have been dismissed and our voices excluded.

Background on MACC, Gifted Education and Stakeholder Exclusion

MACC is not an Enrichment-centred program. It is for Grade 4-7 students who are neurodiverse and highly able learners, with a ‘P’ (Gifted) learning designation from the Ministry of Education. (For more detail on Giftedness, see https://giftedchildrenbc.org/new-to-gifted ).

MACC is a multi-year program based on autonomous learning, a conceptually advanced curriculum, and a community of like-minded peers, all in line with best practices in Gifted Education. Most of these children have not had success in a mainstream classroom and struggle with issues such as perfectionism, anxiety, ADHD, bullying and depression. MACC weaves both necessary academic challenge and social-emotional supports into its curriculum.

MACC is based on best practices in Gifted Ed research, which calls for these students to be grouped together, learning with like-minded peers and developing the skills they need in order to succeed.

Reaction from MACC alum:

I'd have less autonomy, fewer social connections and less motivation to learn.

• on MACC cancellation

No way! Then it would have been even harder to fit in at school!

• on proposed 6-week enrichment centres

Hear from Experts:

A gifted child needs time with intellectual peers, same age peers & time alone. If their intellectual peer is also their same age, then it creates opportunities for social & emotional connection. -Dr. Joan Pinkus, Reg. Psychologist, specialized in gifted learners

MACC provides social and emotional security for students... someone who understands them.

• Virginia Bowden, Former Gifted Education teacher at VSB

There's a spark in their eye. There's an intensity. It's this intensity that can be a blessing and a curse.

• Dr. Lannie Kanevsky, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, SFU

The Enrichment Centres proposed by the VSB are entirely different.

They would serve a different population (not designed for Gifted learners)

• They’d be 6 weeks, rather than MACC’s full-time, holistic approach.
• They would focus on specific themes instead of the autonomous learning skills and social-emotional support MACC provides.
• The ECs sound like a great program for many students, but they are not relevant for our children’s needs.
• VSB already offers enrichment programs, such as multi-day Challenge Centres, Gifted Summer Schools and Seminars. The proposed Enrichment Centres pilot should be an expansion of these existing programs if VSB cares about increasing equity and access for all students who seek enrichment.

Parents’ Concerns:

My kid really struggles with the type of transition VSB’s proposed 6-week enrichment centre model). Will they be held accountable for class work while they were away?

How will working parents manage getting kids to and from a new location for 6 weeks once or several times a year?

How will my kid's classroom teacher get to know them and bring them up to speed when they are moving in/out of the GEC?

How will kids keep up with subjects like French when they are pulled away for 6 weeks?

How will gifted kids be able to participate in extra-curricular activities when they have to switch schools for 6 weeks at a time?

Parents’ feedback after the first November-December 2022 GEC session:

VSB says they’re ending MACC due to a lack of “equity.”

Equity for whom? No one would say that a program for students with autism or dyslexia is not “equitable” because it isn’t open to everyone. Cancelling MACC sets up a bigger inequity for these students: Parents with the resources will move their children to private school, and students from less wealthy families will be stuck without options.

• MACC students are a highly diverse group (racially/culturally, geographically, socioeconomically), but the VSB has a continued responsibility to seek out and identify students from all backgrounds -- particularly underrepresented groups -- to ensure all students who need the MACC Program have access to it.
• Like all VSB Special Ed. ("Learning Services") programs, MACC students are referred by school-based teams, which increases equity. A private psychoeducational assessment test ("psych-ed") has historically not been necessary for MACC, as the VSB ran group assessments several times a year.
• The three other districts with MACC (Surrey, Burnaby & Coquitlam) are continuing their programs as usual. Why not Vancouver?
• Families have been told this is not a budget issue, and MACC is not an expensive program to run. This is the only program under Learning Services targeted for cancellation.
• The VSB argues that MACC isn’t geographically equitable. That’s easily handled: There are four MACC classes; it should be possible to move one to each quadrant of the city.

Parents’ Reactions:

The most socially confident kids are more likely to be from higher socio-economic classes and are less likely to have experienced any kind of racism or bigotry at school. In what universe is a system based on student self-referral more equitable at identifying gifted kids?

VSB’s “Consultation” is excluding and silencing stakeholders.

The VSB is using the terms “enrichment” and “equity” to pit parents against each other.

• At the VSB’s “pre-engagement” and “engagement” sessions, moderators announced that the decision has been made to end MACC and refused to allow any discussion of the current program--even by students trying to advocate for their own education. Participants in the sessions were asked for input only on the EC’s themes (e.g., Minecraft, Drumming), methods of learning (“plant-based activities,” “arts and crafts”), and time frame (4 - 8 weeks).
• When parents and MACC alumni overwhelmingly (and respectfully) expressed their frustration and opposition to the VSB's plans their comments were ignored, their concerns were not addressed, and some were even removed from the Zoom consultations.