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Status Report on Renewal of Ontario's Education SystemComments on Elementary and Secondary Education (August, 1999)2. Accountable Education Management 3. Knowledgeable Ministerial Advisors 4. Transitional Move to Quality Education 5. Bureaucratic and Labour Relations 6. Curriculum 8. Testing 10. Effective Teaching Techniques 11. Semestering 12. Remediation 14. Competition Considerations 15. Faculties of Education (same as in Section 2, #6)
BACKGROUNDIn 1992, the P.C. Party (then in opposition) published New Directions II - A Blueprint for Learning to be used as the education section of the platform for the 1995 election. Largely because of this comprehensive platform, the P.C.’s were elected to a majority government and largely because the P.C.’s kept their platform promises during their first term, they were re-elected to another majority government in June, 1999. The Tory election platform was based on Blueprint, April 1999 - Mike Harris’ Plan to Keep Ontario on the Right Track. In this document, the P.C. Party re-iterated its plan to provide quality education in an efficient manner. Among the major initiatives taken by the P.C.’s in their first term were: Bill 160 - which took over control of education and gave it back to the government of the day; the decision to create new curriculum for both elementary and secondary education (while shrinking 13 years of education into 12); the funding formula - which was designed to divert more money directly to the classroom; the diminution of school boards; and the creation of school councils; etc. The full background and general current concerns in education are well covered in both of OCER’s major publications - Could Do Better, and its successor, Could Still Do Better - whereas this document highlights the additional specific steps needed to complete the journey from the recent education dark age to an age of enlightened and effective education practices. Recent events indicate the journey will not be easy. The courageous and difficult work already accomplished by the P.C. Party has set the stage for the full implementation of its policies. Unfortunately, despite the P.C. Party’s remarkable achievements over the past four years, the impact of their policies in the class room has been minimal!
What needs to be done?1. Education LeadershipOne of the problems, as we see it, in getting education policies implemented is the present apparent lack of realistic education expertise, both at the ministry and at the Boards of Education - with respect to effective teaching techniques, effective curriculum design and effective student and program assessment. Thirty years of ineffective education practices (including the absence of a defined curriculum) has had a staggering impact on everyone. Some wonder if it is true that there are apparently now very few decision-makers who can be counted on to thoroughly understand what it is that the P.C. Party is trying to accomplish in education renewal?
Solution Direct the new Deputy Minister to ensure that key senior personnel demonstrate that they have meaningful credentials and abilities in teaching, curriculum design and education administration - and if there is a shortage of needed expertise, promptly commence a hiring campaign. This will ensure that the government’s policy directives can be effectively implemented! 2. Accountable Education ManagementDespite the funding control given by Bill 160, school boards are not yet on-board with respect to the changes required by policy directives. Some boards are still carrying on with "business as usual". Further, the management of the individual school is nominally the job of the principal, but the principal’s actual ability to manage key items like staff and budget is limited by board and ministry directives and by bargaining agreements. The decision to take principals out of the teachers’ unions was commendable, but without further measures, it will make their management tasks even more difficult. The establishment of school councils, made up of parents, teachers, non-teaching staff and community representatives (who are elected - not selected by the principal - at well advertized public meetings) responded to the growing sentiment, reflected in the polls, that the public has too little say in how schools are run. But school councils’ only role at present is to advise the principal - who, as previously noted, exercises limited authority in any event. This situation creates a vicious circle as able people, seeing no chance to be effective, decide not to participate in school councils. The time is ripe for initiatives to replace the vicious circle of disappointment and disengagement with a virtuous circle of energy and action.
Solutions
3. Knowledgeable Ministerial AdvisorsBackground The Ontario Coalition for Education Reform observed that there was a difficult transition between Ministers John Snobelen and David Johnston. The education portfolio is very complex and there is a one to two year learning curve to truly understand the workings of education and the Ministry. Advisors from the Snobelen team who grew to clearly understand the issues were left in place to help Minister Johnston - but only for a very short time; this resulted in some very poorly executed policies such as the Secondary Curriculum. The policy of simply moving a Minister and his team when there is a Cabinet shuffle should be re-evaluated. Ministers need informed independent advisors who have experience - otherwise the process can be manipulated and the government's objectives distorted. Solutions
4. Transitional Move to Quality EducationBackground Everyone understands the need for increased standards and a positive move in that direction has been created by the provincial testing and the new curriculum documents. The difficulty is that many students at all grades do not have the essential skills and knowledge to cope with their present grade level. The bureaucracy dutifully calls for increased standards. At the same time it fiercely fights to maintain its power while rationalizing the status quo. Teachers are fearful that they cannot fulfill the requirements of the new curriculum and that they will be held responsible when many of their ill prepared students don't meet the new standards. Similarly, principals fear that their schools will be ranked low now that testing makes comparison between schools possible. We must accept certain realities Children in the primary and junior divisions can be quickly moved towards the higher expectations if the necessary program changes are made. The higher the grade the greater the transitional difficulties. Socially promoted students carry forward massive gaps in their skills and knowledge. We can have higher failure levels but we can't have massive failure. School staffs must be allowed to work in an atmosphere of support. We need to recognize our problems and seek solutions without blaming the front line workers. Schools must be allowed to calm down. Almost all students can achieve stated goals. True learning deficiencies must be dealt with by effective remedial programs that kick in immediately and have very high expectations.
Solution We have to view the objectives of the elementary curriculum as an immediate goal for the primary division. We may need several years to bring the junior and intermediates up to standard. Many people believe that the secondary curriculum is not at the level of the elementary and may have to be seen as a transitional document requiring several years of careful refinement until it is a document that can stand on its merit. Testing is the key to ensuring that schools are meeting curriculum objectives. Standardized testing administered for the first few years at the beginning of the year, would effectively identify students who require intensive remedial help (e.g., students entering grade 6 with only grade 3 capabilities) and such documentation would make it less threatening to the current teachers - who will be held accountable for the performance of their class at the end of the school year. After a few years, and as reforms have had a chance to work their way through the system, this type of front-end testing will no longer be required. The topic of semestering at high schools is introduced later, but the implications here on subject mastery, especially for struggling students, can be quite serious - there just isn’t the time available with semesters to provide coherent, effective and sustained academic programming. 5. Bureaucratic and Labour RelationsRecent changes in education have created rifts with four different segments of the education field:
It is inappropriate to consider healing rifts with those people who actively discourage the government at every step along the way - people largely responsible for the mess we are in. Mechanisms must be found to manage these people or to minimize their ability to disrupt the education renewal process. E.g., normalize the teacher union’s power by legislating that union membership be optional; also consider identifying education to be an essential service - ban strikes and institute compulsory arbitration to solve labour problems in the education sector. The teachers themselves are an important exception to the above. It is essential to bring the teachers on-board in the education renewal process. This can be accomplished in several ways. Solutions
6. CurriculumMuch work has now been done on the curriculum - new curriculum for both elementary and high school students - while reducing 13 years of education to 12 years. It is here with curricula design that the gap between the Party’s policy directives and the ability of some administrators to achieve those directives is the widest. The present elementary curriculum is still not sufficiently defined to provide clear guidance to elementary teachers - many of whom do not possess a mastery of core subjects. The high school curricula was theoretically designed with input from many stakeholders but in reality, it appeared that all the key decisions had been made before the consultation process even began - e.g., advisors were not even permitted to discuss subject content at the scheduled curriculum meetings; several advisors wondered aloud why they were wasting their time at the so-called "curriculum" meetings. When the final product received many complaints, subject content suggestions were accepted, but rumour has it that while this final fine-tuning was taking place, the documents were already at the printers. In any event, the final product did not reflect the concerns of many advisors! We believe that the final product, in some subject areas, is vastly inferior to the curriculum that existed in the 1980's and early 1990's (a curriculum that couldn’t be taught because the students coming out of grade 8 were so poorly prepared), and many believe that the reduction of one year of schooling should have been spread over the remaining 12 years - concentrated in the elementary years instead of being concentrated mainly in the high school subjects. It is perhaps useful to recall that the trigger for all the recent changes to curricula was the poor performance of Ontario students when compared to students from other provinces and particularly when compared to students from many European and Asian countries. We expect that Ontario students’ test performances will decline even further unless the new curriculum is effectively re-designed.
Solutions When designing curriculum, it is necessary to identify both the depth and breadth of each subject topic treatment by roughly defining the class contact hours needed to "typically" cover the material - only those with education and subject experience can do this job. It is probably because of the absence of a defined curriculum over the past 30 years that this process presently seems to be so difficult and so mysterious. Consider the creation of an effective curriculum to be a 4 or 5 year project and inform the public that quality education won’t happen over-night.
7. School Discipline
8. TestingEQAO Complaints about EQAO are centred in the following two areas: a) testing is too complicated and too expensive b) the confusing use of levels in the reporting - e.g., Levels 1, 2, 3 and 4 . Level 1 - limited knowledge and skills, etc. Level 2 - some knowledge and skills, etc. Level 3 - most knowledge and skills, etc. Level 4 - exceeds requirements, etc. Some describe the present levels as moving targets - targets whose values change with shifting circumstances. For years, Level 2 was touted, in the news media, as being the "expected" level (as if that were OK), despite previous statements that Level 3 was the provincial standard. Last year, for the first time, the published results were tied to Level 3 and showed that most Ontario students are failing! Also, large numbers of weaker students are exempted from testing and are included only in some test reports. This skews the results so that they appear to be much more favourable than they really are (even these skewed results are a disaster!) Recently, the Ministry of Education re-defined their Levels and gave percent equivalencies: Level 1 - 50% to 60% Level 2 - 60% to 70 % Level 3 - 70% to 80% Level 4 - >80% Incredibly, according to this list there are no failures and thus no need to assist failing students! The original Level definitions, devised by the Curriculum Branch clearly showed that Levels 1 and 2 were indicative of students who failed to achieve the course objectives - with a stroke of the pen, the Curriculum Branch "solved" Ontario’s education problems by awarding failing students passing grades. If there is any hope of improvement for Ontario’s students, there has to be a complete stop to the deception and deliberate confusion coming out of the Ministry of Education. To have the Ministry and the EQAO using different definitions for "levels"is simply ludicrous! Outlaw the use of levels and thus put a stop to the confusion. Grades should be reported only as percentages - a technique that has worked well for centuries and a technique that everyone understands! Finally, although the reporting is now tied to Level 3, no one (including the Ministry) seems to be concerned that most Ontario students are failing to meet the program objectives. Why? Exit Testing Elementary level education: The basic reason that the quality of education at Ontario’s secondary level began to deteriorate years ago was that students coming out of the elementary system (victims of the failed "child centred learning" teaching experiments) were simply not academically prepared to work at the Grade 9 level. Instead of correcting the problems at the elementary level, programs at the secondary level were watered down so that most students could be promoted each year. The rigorous mandatory curriculum that was in effect for many years became, instead, a "curriculum guideline"- a meaningless document.
Solution Create province-wide exit tests in Grade 8 to ensure that students have been properly prepared to succeed in high school and to ensure that the elementary curriculum is being effectively delivered. We must stop the present destructive practice of "socially" promoting unprepared (failing) students to the next level of difficulty where we know the students are guaranteed to do even worse. Exit tests would also provide the needed means of assessing the success of the elementary programs and would provide a measure of accountability for long-suffering taxpayers and parents. If exit tests are not created, it will be business as usual in the Province of Ontario - students will continue to enter high school woefully unprepared to succeed in the planned curriculum. In Cook County Ill., exit tests were instituted years ago. Large numbers (at first) of children failed to pass their Grade 8 exams and were told that they had to successfully complete a summer program or they would have to repeat Grade 8. The improvement in education was dramatic - one effect of grade 8 tests can be summed up by the comments of a student (who failed the year) while attending the graduation ceremony for her successful peers "If I knew that this was going to happen, I would have done some work." (as reported in the Toronto Star - 1998). This comment also demonstrates that if children are expected to do their best, they will deliver. Past experience with exit testing shows that the standards created by the exit tests work back down to the earliest grades; this should result in a much reduced need for the very expensive type of testing now administered by the EQAO. Any further yearly testing that may be desired (as noted in the Blueprint, 1999) could be in the form of commercially available tests (basic skills tests) which can be administered much more economically and in a much less disruptive fashion than the present EQAO testing. Although these tests of basic skills do not test all parts of the curriculum, they are an inexpensive method of assuring parents that essential skills have been acquired and/or of identifying areas of a student’s weakness that will require extra work. EQAO has been philosophically opposed to these tests but this type of testing has proven its value in measuring essential skills. Secondary level education The basic reason that huge numbers of high school grads are unsuccessful in post secondary programs (e.g., a more than 50% failure rate in first semester college engineering technology programs in the 1980's and early 1990's) is that many high school grads do not meet the objectives of the high school curriculum - upon which the post secondary curricula is based. What are the costs of this inefficient system?
Solution Create province-wide exit tests in grade 12 to ensure that high school graduates are properly prepared to succeed in post secondary programs and in the work-place; and to ensure that the high school curriculum is being effectively delivered. Exit tests should be designed with international standards in mind A general comment on testing - over the past few years, as the concept of testing once again became recognized and accepted, the doomsayers from the "holistic" crowd warned everyone that the implementation of testing would lead to the dreaded "teaching to the test". Effective teachers give lessons and then routinely test to determine the following: Which students need extra help (and what kinds of help)? Is extra time needed for the whole class in supplemental instruction before moving on to the next sequential topic? Without testing, individual needy students cannot be helped and teachers would never discover that sometimes they have to modify their delivery to become more effective. People who warn against "teaching to the test" obviously have no idea what they are talking about! 9. Choice in EducationMany would argue that one of the rights of parents is that of choice. The Blueprint tells us (Page 38) "In to-day’s world, a top quality education is not a luxury - it is an absolute necessity," and it goes on: "we must respect the rights of everyone involved in the education system - students, teachers and parents." We often look to the public domain for choices which are available through French immersion, arts programs, special needs, gifted, enriched, alternative high schools and alternative public schools. Roman Catholics and Francophones are served through their own schools. This range, however, is very limited and partly the explanation for many families choosing independent schools. Within the public and separate schools more choices could be made available by allowing parents to choose the public or separate school of their choice - that is by encouraging cross-boundary transfers; some restrictions such as availability of space would be necessary. Each school does, over time, develop its own personality - a personality or characteristic which may be the choice favoured by some parents. If choices were also extended to the independent schools through a funding formula, the resultant competition would mean that education in general would be greatly enriched. Within the independent schools, there are a variety of choices based on a particular religious philosophy, but there are also choices such as Montessori, Waldorf, the more traditional, special needs and small community schools run by parents - to mention only a few. 10. Effective Teaching TechniquesThe social approach to education, used at the elementary level for the past thirty years, has as its cornerstone the technique of teaching known as Child Centred Learning. Since serious studies show conclusively that this technique doesn’t work effectively for most children, methods should be used that are shown to work effectively for the majority of students. For example, in the teaching of reading, instead of using the "black magic" technique of whole language, students should be taught systematically using intensive phonics. Reading cannot be taught in isolation - reading the words, writing the words and hearing the words re-enforces the learning. Recent studies with students taught using the Open Court® techniques of phonics instruction for reading showed three time the success rate as with normal direct instruction - which itself was shown to be light-years beyond Ontario’s whole language approach in effectiveness. Other techniques including: Spalding, Orton-Gillingham and Unbungling the Basics have been shown to be quite effective
Solution Persuade the faculties of education to immediately begin teaching prospective teachers the proven-successful techniques of direct instruction. Circular 14 - which effectively discourages the use of direct instruction.- should either be revised or discarded 11. SemesteringSemestered schools may be the answer to some administrators’ prayers (it makes scheduling easier) but are a disaster for many students. A study done in 1985, by the Ministry of Education (the study was but never released, but was seen by some of our Directors) confirmed this observation. It is obvious that trying to compress 10 months’ work into less than 5 months, places great constraints on teachers and doesn’t give the students time to really master the subject topics - especially the analytical subjects where thorough comprehension of a topic may only sink in months after the original classroom presentation. In addition, analytical subjects such as math, science, music, grammar, etc. that depend on sequential learning, may not come around again for the semestered student for a full year - which often means a lot of time is unnecessarily wasted on "refreshing" and reviewing. Many teachers (in semestered programs) find that seventy-five minute classes are too long. It is difficult to keep students interested in presentations that take that length of time so many teachers spend only about 30 minutes actually teaching with the remainder of the period taken up with giving an assignment, working on the assignment and checking it. This means that "homework" is done during class time thus curtailing the time available for teaching new material. Teachers’ class time would be much more efficiently utilized in full-year programs (which have much shorter teacher periods, e.g., 40 min.) and homework would be done at home - thus both saving the taxpayers money and providing a much better quality of education (including learning re-enforcement) for our students.
Solution We agree with others who have recommended an end to the semester system at high schools. The school day should (unless needs of the new curriculum demand otherwise) consist of nine periods - with periods of forty minutes each. This would mean that teachers would be in the classroom seven periods (less than five hours a day) with a lunch period and a spare period. 12 RemediationSince the P.C. Party has announced that promotion in each grade will depend on whether or not students pass yearly grade tests, provision must be made for the many students who will not be successful.
Solution If the Party is serious about restricting promotion only to those who clearly demonstrate that they have the ability to succeed at the next grade-level of difficulty, it will have solved one of Ontario education’s largest problems - i.e., "social promotion". However, it must be anticipated that remediation needs and costs will initially be very high as we move from a weak education system to an effective education system. Provision must be made for capable teachers to teach in-school sessions (lengthen the school day if necessary) and summer-school classes. High school students, who fail their final exams after passing the course work, should be given the opportunity to write "supplemental" final exams (similar to the practice at college and university) to give them one further opportunity to satisfy the subject requirements - there would be a limit to the number of supplemental exams that any one student could write each year. Perhaps the funds saved by eliminating the one year of schooling can be applied here. 13. Special EducationIt has been noted that Special Education is a misnomer - for 20 years some of it has been neither "special" nor "education"- it has been a life sentence! Many "special ed" programs are little more than social experiments - experiments that have never been assessed either with respect to effectiveness or with respect to cost for Ontario taxpayers. Also, it has been noted that some students in the "slow learners" and "learning disabled" (see below) categories may have been placed in those categories as much the result of Ontario’s ineffective teaching techniques (child centred learning) as of their own personal disabilities. Special Education Students fall into different categories: Retarded - I.Q. below sixty, who have very limited capabilities, no matter what the programmes. Educable retarded - I.Q. between 60-75, who can be taught basic skills, as long as there is structure and drill. It takes longer. They can be made functional. Slow learners - I.Q. 75-85, just that, slow learners, but they can be taught to be productive, hard-working reliable students. Learning Disabled or Dyslexic - I.Q. average to above 90-110, sometimes gifted. Roughly 1%-2% of the population, not the 15-20 percent claimed by some bureaucrats. Gifted - I.Q. 120-up. Solution Special education students (all students) need the same thing - structured classrooms, defined curricula, capable teachers, direct instruction and DRILL, DRILL, DRILL! Note: There are many children who can not work at the higher intellectual levels required by some analytical subjects. These students need basic literacy and numeracy skills and job skills! Unfortunately, the recent curriculum and funding changes have resulted in the elimination of many "shop" type programs (and even some basic-level schools) - precisely the types of programs needed by these many students. 14. Competition ConsiderationsIt is a recognized fact that the absence of competition easily leads to inefficiency and may lead to corruption - in all aspects of human endeavours. This fact alone is a strong argument against monopolistic practices in education. Break Up The Monopolies The School Monopoly The government should instruct public schools to accept all qualified applicants on a first come, first served basis, except for priority given to students living in the school's catchment area. The government should provide partial funding to independent schools using a formula like BC’s - i.e., no funding for schools that spend more per pupil than public schools servicing comparable students. The Textbook Monopoly Circular 14 (the government's list of approved texts) acts like a monopoly, shutting out effective direct instruction texts. Recognizing the failure of "holistic" teaching techniques, the government should suspend Circular 14 and thus permit and encourage the use of effective teaching practices. The Teacher Training Monopoly The government should permit alternative methods of teacher certification, such as internship or alternative university programming. The College of Teachers should certify only those university "education" programs that clearly demonstrate the new teacher is prepared to begin a teaching career - i.e., sufficient practice teaching under the supervision of capable senior teachers; mastery of subject areas to be taught (in elementary education, this means mastery of all subjects in the core curriculum); the ability to utilize teaching techniques that have been proven to be effective; and a working knowledge of class management techniques. The Teachers’ Union Monopoly The unions are indifferent to academic excellence and, when the unions’ interests conflict with academic excellence, their members are actually required to ignore the academic needs of their students.(e.g., the illegal strike, working-to-rule, etc.). The government should make membership in the teachers’ unions voluntary and consider identifying teaching profession as an essential service - outlawing strikes. 15. Faculties of EducationTeachers are certified after taking a one (soon to be two) year program at a Faculty of Education. High school teachers must first obtain a degree in their area of specialization but elementary teachers may obtain their degree in any subject area - most seem to prefer one of the social sciences - e.g., psychology, sociology, economics, women’s studies, anthropology, etc. - subject areas that do very little to prepare the prospective teacher to teach any of the core subjects at the elementary level. Upon arriving at teachers colleges prospective students then learn the techniques of "child centred" learning - techniques that don’t work well - techniques that have been thoroughly discredited - techniques largely responsible for the current mess in education. Further, the new teachers are not taught effective techniques of class management. In Blueprint, 1999, the P.C. Party notes on Page 46 under Links to Jobs "Too often students are getting education that doesn’t relate to today’s job market." Nowhere in Ontario is the gap wider, between what is needed by way of education and training for the workplace and what is now provided our students in teacher education and training! In Priorities for the 21st Century (1999) by the Jobs and Investment Board, the important connection between education and the workplace is also stressed.
Solution Do not implement the proposed additional year at faculties of education - instead, for prospective elementary teachers, create entrance tests that show that they have a mastery of all subjects in the elementary core curriculum. Commence the announced teacher testing and force failing elementary teachers to take programs that include core subjects in the elementary curriculum before being re-tested. Somehow force Faculties of Education to prepare all prospective teachers to use effective techniques of teaching. Two years ago the state of California was forced to legislate the use of "direct instruction" because the entrenched bureaucracy refused to give up the discredited "child centred" techniques - defending their failed "holistic" practices with a cult-like fervour. 16. College of TeachersThe College of Teachers, which was created to be the self-regulatory professional body for teachers, has not fulfilled its mandate. It is the College’s job to ensure that teachers are properly prepared to teach the approved curriculum to Ontario’s children - through effective teaching techniques, effective class management and by having a mastery of the subject material they may be called upon to teach. In reality, many students coming from Faculties of Education to elementary education positions have no mastery of the core subjects and have not been exposed to effective teaching techniques such as direct instruction and few, if any, class strategies. Most of the College’s officers were elected from slates of candidates prepared by the anti-government teachers’ unions - private school teachers (and many others) who had no say whatsoever in the appointment of their representatives question the make-up of the whole administrative structure. In their magazine Professionally Speaking, many of the articles promote practices which are fashionably innovative - but lacking in research to demonstrate effectiveness. For example "activity centred learning", so prevalent in our schools and still touted by the College, has been proven to be ineffective. Articles promoting the teacher as "co-learner" do not inspire faith in parents who have the quaint notion that the teacher should know more than the students. In short, the College now seems determined to promote all the failed practices that brought Ontario to this education dark-age. The College’s "Standards of Practice" are written in the same fuzzy over-generalized language that characterized the discredited "Common Curriculum", and all so-called "standards" written by our modern bureaucrats. This fuzzy language makes it impossible (perhaps deliberately so) to effectively measure performance in order to provide for some accountability. Finally, although they have a discipline committee, parents are not permitted to complain to them about unsatisfactory teachers. If complaints cannot be directed to the College, a "Parents Ombudsman" should be established - to provide parents accountability and redress.
Solution Establish a review group to study the operation of the College of Teachers and to answer the following questions:
After a proper review has been completed, the group should present proposals to the Minister designed to correct any deficiencies arising from their study. We would be pleased to attend a follow-up meeting with you and your staff to discuss, in detail, any or all the points raised in this paper. Also, we can provide documents and further references if that would be helpful.
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