MACC (Multi Age Cluster Class)


The Multi-Age Cluster Class or Middle Age Cluster Class is a gifted education program based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The MACC program has extended to several more schools located in the Greater Vancouver Regional District, namely; Burnaby, Surrey, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody. It is designed to enrich the regular school curriculum for students in Grades 4 to 7, and continues into Grade 8 in Coquitlam. The program opened its doors in 1994, one year after University Hill Secondary School's much-heralded University Transition Program for accelerated learners. Surrey began offering the MACC program in 2003.
The admission process for MACC involves several steps, where a child's suitability in the program is evaluated. A student is referred by their home school, challenge-class teacher, gifted case manager, or parent for consideration for admission. Students are given a cognitive test which gives the selection committee a deeper understanding of a student's intellectual abilities. After that, students who are seen as potential, gifted candidates are invited to spend one or two days in the classroom at the school they would potentially attend. Offers of admission are sometimes contingent on this final step. The MACC program, despite its various permutations, universally emphasizes the creation of lifelong, autonomous learners who seek knowledge in an active and dynamic learning environment clustered with other high-ability learners. In addition, many MACC graduates have gone on to national and international success, including Brian Wong, twice nominated as a member of Top 30 Under 30.
Teachers are chosen based on experience, ideally with course-work, training and/or experience working with high-ability learners. Many teachers have received national recognition for their accomplishments while working in MACC. Most notably, the former Tecumseh MACC teacher, Ms. Marie Chomyn, who received the Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence in 2012, as well as 2013 Governor General Award co-recipients and former MACC teachers Ms. Graeme Cotton and Ms. Romy Cooper for their contributions to the teaching of issues related to national heritage. The current MACC teachers are Ms. Coit, Ms. Tayler, Mr. Webb and Madame Peddle.

Location

Currently, there are 3 schools hosting the MACC program in Vancouver. They are all administered by the Vancouver School Board.
There were previous incarnations of MACC at Lord Nelson Elementary School, Queen Mary Elementary School, and David Livingstone Elementary School, but the program has shrunk slightly and relocated to its current base schools over the years due to a combination of VSB funding cuts, seismic upgrades, and perceived population shifts. In addition, there are other MACC programs outside Vancouver, such as Berkshire Park Elementary School, Hyland Elementary School, Bayridge Elementary School and Crescent Park Elementary School, all of which are located in Surrey. All four Surrey programs are Grades 5–7. Surrey is currently in consideration of adding a high school program. In Vancouver, there also used to be a high school MACC program at Kitsilano Secondary School, though in Vancouver the concept has evolved into the 'Mini-School', of which most MACC graduates attend. The Tri-Cities has three MACC equipped schools, namely Citadel Middle School, Hillcrest Middle School, and Kwayhquitlum Middle School. In 2014, two MACC sites were added in Burnaby at Capitol Hill Elementary School and Suncrest Elementary. Both of these schools have a grade 4/5 and 6/7 class. There is also a Mini-School program located at Alpha Secondary School.

The Four Pillars (Curriculum)

The MACC curriculum places emphasis on Four Main Pillars: Autonomous Learning, Numeracy, Literacy, and Project Based Learning. Report cards are often structured around these 4 categories, with subcategories such as Work Habits, Personal Responsibility, Active Learning, and Social Responsibility.

Autonomous Learning

The word autonomous means to be independent, self-governing, efficient and to be able to learn by yourself and be a self-motivated learner. This is a very important life-skill that is heavily emphasized in this program. The students need to be autonomous, as they are not always reminded of due dates, or to take notes for their projects. This flexible learning style works well for self-motivated, creative, and independent students because it allows them to set their own goals and manage their own time. This benefits students because this teaches students how to become leaders in their own learning. The learning system quite different from the regular system because students run at their own pace, which means that everyone in the class can be in stronger in different areas of learning.

Numeracy

In the MACC program, students work on self-paced math curriculum work in addition to problem-solving and math contests. This allows for accelerated math learning, and many students are known for going 1, 2 or 3 years beyond their grade level in math. More emphasis is placed on problem-solving to promote critical thinking skills. Some classes have 'individual math work' but in small groups where everyone's skill is more or less the same. Teachers believe that in doing so, this will bring up a lot of interesting math discussion, which they believe is useful in learning math. Also, because of all the work MACC students spend on problem-solving math, MACC students tend to score high in math competitions. In 2016, 3 Kwayhquitlum students and 1 Tecumseh student 'aced' the Grade 7 Gauss contest by scoring a perfect 150.

Literacy

The MACC Program offers a variety of different literacy activities, including novel studies, poem analysis, essay writing, persuasive writing, story writing, graphic novel writing, report writing, play writing, and many others. Many of these are for preparation for high school, writing reports for Science Fair, Heritage Fair, and EOE projects.

Project-Based Learning

In Project-Based Learning, students explore learning through three main projects each year. These include a Science Fair or Heritage fair project, an EOE, individual or partner research projects, or group drama projects. These projects are usually the biggest thing that students will do while in MACC. However, the Heritage Fair has not always been done in some classes, such as at Hillcrest Middle school. The Science Fair is based on a typical science fair, but students are encouraged to go 'above and beyond', and explore in-depth scientific research questions and experiments. For Heritage Fair, students explore major events in Canadian History and compete in the Canadian Heritage Fair. In 2016, the FI MACC class was honored to created a class Heritage Fair event, about the 100th anniversary of The Battle of Vimy Ridge, as well as explore the 'birth of Canada'. EOE, students decide on an Eminent person to portray, based on the five criteria for an eminent person - Distinct, Distinguished, Determined, Influential and has Integrity - the 3 'D's and 2 'I's. The students end this project with a museum display, usually hosted at the or the where they pose as their Eminent person. Many MACC classes also participate in the annual Let's Talk Science competition at U.B.C., and Surrey teams from Crescent Park and Berkshire Park have won the competition five times since 2010.

Individualized Education Plan (IEP)

In the MACC program, each student, along with their parents and teachers, personalizes their goals in his/her IEP. While similar in some aspects to a regular IEP, it is modified to summarize the students' objectives in the four pillars of the MACC program: Literacy, Numeracy, Autonomous Learning and Project-Based Learning. Unlike regular report cards, MACC students' report cards include what the students have done to achieve these goals.