SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

72 expensive white elephants

In 2008, the province of Ontario took over the supervision of the Toronto Catholic School Board, relinquishing power early this year. As outlined in this article, the extra costs to taxpayers (over and above the ongoing normal costs of running a school board, amounted to almost a million dollars. Some of these expenses were pretty eye-popping, for example the payment of $70,500 to a consultant for 47 days' work. Of course, the supervision was probably necessary, given the fact that the Toronto Catholic Board couldn't/wouldn't balance its own books.

And yet and yet. All this turmoil and expense to salvage what exactly? By and large, today's school boards are administrative structures that accomplish very little, if anything, that couldn't be carried out by the individual schools they hamper. Far from adding value, school boards cost a lot, do very little, and get in the way of classroom teachers. In Ontario, we're saddled with 72 of them.

School boards were probably a good idea back in the old days, with lots of localized rural schools and no modern telecommunications. Times have changed, though, and it's time to move on.

There’s a new kid on the block

A warm welcome to the Coalition for Quality Education, a brand-new grassroots group based in Oakville, ON. The Coalition looks at public education from the point of view of the round-peg students who are being forced square-hole schools. You can read about their mission here. 

While I hate to rain on their parade - and, believe me, I'm delighted that they are marching - the Coalition's goals are the sort of tweaks we supported more than 10 years ago. Because we have been at this game for so long, we have had time to test drive a variety of strategies - including campaigns to make elected officials accountable and transparent. Been there, done that, didn't work. 

That is why the Society for Quality Education now supports school choice, a policy that is designed to do an end run around all of the obstacles that the Coalition is proposing to face head on. We fervently hope that the Coalition will follow the same learning curive that we did, ultimately joining us in our support of school choice.

No Brickbats Today!

After saying so many (richly-deserved) negative things about the Ontario education system, here at long last is something positive (also richly-deserved). It concerns a dedicated teacher who went the extra mile and transformed a child's life. So here's a tribute to all the wonderful, caring teachers out there who are succeeding despite the obstacles placed in their way by the Blob.

One school board doesn’t fit all

BC's Burnaby School District last night unanimously passed a new anti-homophobia policy that has run into strong opposition. I don't know much about Burnaby's new policy, although I'm guessing it's on the extreme side - since the opponents of the Burnaby policy are okay with the Peace River Policy which seems pretty comprehensive. It's not like they are right-wing Froot Loops.

But the point I wish to make has nothing to do with whether the new policy is good or bad. To me, the most important aspect is that a new and controversial policy is being imposed on every family in the board, whether they like it or not. And some don't like it.

We have a situation where some parents, who bear the primary responsibility for their children's upbringing, being forced to expose their children to situations they perceive as potentially damaging. You and I might not think it would be damaging, but the point is - these parents do think their children are going to be harmed. Should they have to suffer and worry like this? How much power should the government have to impose its authority on parents?

The problem could be avoided, of course, if there were a variety of schools with a variety of orientations, and parents could choose the type of school that suits their world view.

Do the math

Hypatia's June 1 and June 12 blog entries are well worth reading, as they deal with the importance of the importance of strong subject knowledge for math teachers. You probably don't have to be a rocket scientist to grasp that students learn more from teachers who are really good at math. This theme is well explored in Knowing and Teaching Mathematics by Liping Ma, a book available from our lending library.

Unfortunately, the education system doesn't accord high priority to subject matter knowledge, as demonstrated by the number of high school teachers who are assigned to teach "out of field", as well as the very high percentage of elementary teachers who avoided math in university. When the EQAO asked Ontario grade 3 teachers whether they felt comfortable teaching mathematics, between 29% and 54% indicated some discomfort (depending on the area of mathematics), and between 38% and 54% of grade 6 teachers reported the same. Only 9% of grade 6 math teachers had taken at least one university math course. These statistics are available here (pp. 21 and 39). 

It seems likely that Ontario kids would be doing better in math if fewer of their teachers were uncomfortable with the subject. Is this too much to ask?

How’s that again again

The comments to my blog on the latest Ontario Grade 10 literacy results have taken on a life of their own. The main point of contention concerns the percentage of Ontario 15-year-olds (Grade 10 cohort) who actually passed the test. Although this was peripheral to my posting (I was mainly on about the EQAO's remarkable statement that the previous high rate of success had been maintained - even though there had been a one percentage point decrease in each of the previous two years), inquiring minds seized on my claim that the pass rate was much lower than the ballyhooed 83% - perhaps as low as 60%. 

I was wrong. It's not nearly that low. My apologies. The true pass rate is more like 70%.

I arrived at this figure by getting the estimated number of 15-year-olds in Ontario in 2010 - 169,111. I can't give you a link, because I had to pay $3.00 to get this information from Statistics Canada - so you'll just have to take my word for it. According to the EQAO, 118,894 of these children passed the test, yielding a pass rate of about 70%.

Given that the test is very easy (agreed by everyone) and that some of the successful students received accommodations (including scribes and prompters, in some cases), it is not all that reassuring that only about 70% of the province's Grade 10 students passed this year. And, of course, in danger of getting lost in the controversy over 60% versus 70%, the really alarming fact is that the trend is downward. 

Despite all the additional money, despite all the secretariats and turn-around teams, despite the priority ceded to education by the government - Ontario kids appear to be learning less. Until such time as the EQAO and the Ontario government acknowledge this fact, as opposed to trying to sweep it under the rug, there is little chance that anything will improve.

Sunday at the Movies (Teachers’ Union Bullies)

Here's more from plain-speaking New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, this time making sure people understand that his fight is with the teachers' unions, as opposed to individual teachers.

Measuring UP Is Online

If you haven’t seen our June newsletter yet, the big news is that our school accountability seminar, Measuring UP is now available for viewing online. 

You can watch a video of a particular section of our conference by clicking on any of the following links:

• Welcome (Doretta Wilson) and Introduction to The Cartel Documentary (Gerry Nicholls)
• Opening Remarks by SQE President, Malkin Dare
• Morning Panel: Response to The Cartel - Panelists: Bob Bowdon, Virginia Walden-Ford, Andrew Thomas, Spider Jones; Moderator: Gerry Nicholls
• Keynote Address by Theo Caldwell
• Afternoon Panel: Are Ontario Schools Accountable? - Panelists: Paul Bennett, Andrea Mrozek, John Snobelen; Moderator: Michael Coren

In the meantime, here is a highlight from former Ontario Education Minister John Snoblen’s presentation. 

How’s that again?

Ontario's testing body, the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO), has just released the province-wide results of its grade 10 literacy test. As the graph shows, only 83% of the province's grade 10 "fully-participating" students passed the test (the unfully-participating students include students who have dropped out of school, students who are ineligible to write the test because they are, for example, disabled in some way or are not fluent in one of the province's official languages, and students who were absent on one or more of the test days: if the unfully-participating students were taken into consideration the pass rate would be much lower - perhaps in the neighbourhood of 60%). And the test is easy (see this sample test booklet). 

Anyway, that's not the main point that I wish to make. In the EQAO's press release, they state "of the 143,246 students who actually wrote the test, 83% were successful, thus maintaining the high rate of success seen over the past five years". Then they say, "there has been a one-percentage-point decrease in each of the last two years."

Exactly how does a two-percentage-point decrease over two years represent the maintenance of the rate of success? After all, we're talking approximately 3,000 students here. The EQAO's remarkable pronouncement reminds me of the concept of doublethink as coined by George Orwell in his book 1984 - the ability to accept two mutually-contradictory concepts in your mind at the same time. And this from a supposedly-neutral arms-length testing organization!

Tipping Point for Parents and Teachers?

Is this latest move by the unions the tipping point for teachers (and parents) in Ontario?

It was bad enough that $60 of extra dues was taken out of teachers' pockets: now teachers are going to get paid leave to go to campaign school.  Problem is, that the only lesson they will be allowed to learn is how to fight provincial conservative candidates.  Democratic?  Hmmm.  The other problem is that the timing could not be worse for Ontario students since the October 6th election date means that the campaign will be in full swing during the month of September when schools are at their busiest.  No problem, says the union--we'll pay for supply teachers!  Unbelievable.

From the sound of angry calls to talk radio, looks like this may just backfire on them.