All or Nothing

Robert Crocker's decades-long career researching educational policy in Newfoundland lays the foundation for this new volume, All or Nothing. This book tells the story of the confrontation between the governments of Clyde Wells and Brian Tobin and the Christian denominations opposing them, as the future of Newfoundland's schools hung in the balance through the 1980s and 1990s. The conflict arose in response to financial constraints, long-term enrolment decline, unsatisfactory student achievement levels, and religious discrimination. The showdown resulted in two amendments to the Constitution of Canada, thereby removing all traces of church control in Newfoundland's schools and reversing a century-old government policy that supported denominational education. In the messy business of public policy development and political decision-making, Crocker's writing clarifies the context of this major shift in the province's approach to education and the institutions that support it. Although the confrontation led to a significant shift from church to state in educational governance, more than two decades later the ultimate goal of improved student achievement has not been met. Crocker argues that the preoccupation with governance may have distracted from the more important goal of improving the processes of teaching and learning.