Ontario Cannot Buy Labour Peace, Hudak Says

Published in the Toronto Star
Thursday, August 23rd, 2012
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/1246379--ontario-cannot-buy-labour-peace-tim-hudak-says 

Dear Editor,


Political debate about education policy in Ontario is important and many different views can have merit. However, Tim Hudak’s claim that performance in Ontario schools has ‘gone down’ in recent years is contrary to all the available evidence, whether from Ontario’s Ministry of Education, the Educational Quality and Accountability Office, the OECD, McKinsey consultants, or the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada. All these sources show that Ontario has a very high performing system by international standards, and that our performance relative to previous years and other provinces has improved. Sources for this claim can be found on our website – factsineducation.blogspot.com.


Sincerely,

• Ruth Baumann, Chair, Curriculum Council for the Ontario Ministry of Education
• Ron Canuel, CEO, Canadian Education Association
• Lorna Earl, Director, Aporia Consulting Ltd. and President of the International Congress of School Effectiveness and School Improvement
• Sue Ferguson, Associate, Continuing Education and Curriculum, Teaching & Learning Depts
• Michael Fullan, Special Policy Adviser in Education to the Premier of Ontario
• Kathleen Gallagher, Professor and Canada Research Chair, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
• Jane Gaskell, Professor and former Dean, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
• Joan Green, Former Director of Education, Founding CEO of EQAO, International Consultant on Public Policy and Performance
• Bill Hogarth, retired Director of Education, Education Consultant
• Kenneth Leithwood, Professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
• Ben Levin, Professor and Canada Research Chair, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
• Penny Milton, former CEO Canadian Education Association
• Charles Pascal, Professor, University of Toronto, Former Ontario Deputy Minister of Education
• Jim Slotta, Professor and Canada Research Chair, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
• Charles Underleider, Professor, Sociology of Education, the University of British Columbia, and Director of Research, Directions Evidence and Policy Research Group, LLP

See, for example:

EQAO’s Provincial Elementary School Report: Results of the 2010–2011Assessments of Reading, Writing and Mathematics, Primary Division (Grades 1–3) and Junior Division (Grades 4–6):

http://www.eqao.com/pdf_e/11/EQAO_ProvincialReport_Elementary2011.pdf

EQAO’s Pan-Canadian Assessment Program (PCAP), 2010

Highlights of Ontario Results:  http://www.eqao.com/pdf_e/11/PCAP_Highlights2010e_web.pdf

Levin, B. (2012). More High School Graduates: How Schools Can Save Students from Dropping Out. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Levin, Ben. (2008)  How to Change 5000 Schools. A Practical and Positive Approach for Leading Change at Every Level. Cambridge, MA:  Harvard Education Press.

Mourshed, M. Chijioke, C. Barber, M. (2010). How the World’s Most Improved School Systems Keep Getting Better. McKinsey & Company.

http://mckinseyonsociety.com/downloads/reports/Education/How-the-Worlds-Most-Improved-School-Systems-Keep-Getting-Better_Download-version_Final.pdf

Ontario Ministry of Education (re: High School Graduation rates): http://news.ontario.ca/opo/en/2010/03/ontario-graduation-rates-rise-again.html

Editor’s Note: Why violence has declined

By John Macfarlane

Published in The Walrus

May 2012

http://walrusmagazine.com/articles/2012.05-editors-note/

 

In the May Editor’s Note John McFarlane puts public schools in the category of things that people think may be getting worse over time.  To be fair, he freely admits that this may simply be nostalgia and that one should reserve judgment unless one has real evidence.  The Facts in Education team (factsineducation.blogspot.com) was created precisely to ensure that media reports on education are factual and to provide evidence that will help people come to informed views.  Walrus readers might like to know that a great deal of international evidence shows that Canadian students are among the best educated in the world.  While real challenges remain in public schools, and we should never feel that our education system is as good as it can be, the evidence strongly suggests that we are educating more students to higher levels than ever before, and doing it better than most other countries.  Please consult our website for evidence for this claim.

Sincerely,

• Ruth Baumann
• Harold Brathwaite, Executive Director, The Retired Teachers of Ontario
• Ron Canuel, CEO, Canadian Education Association
• Gerry Connelly, Co Director Education Sustainability Development Academy, York University
• Lorna Earl, Director, Aporia Consulting Ltd. and President of the International Congress of School Effectiveness and School Improvement
• Sue Ferguson, Coordinator, The Learning Consortium, Ontario Institute of Studies in Education
• Michael Fullan, Special Policy Adviser in Education to the Premier of Ontario 
• Kathleen Gallagher, Professor and Canada Research Chair, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
• Avis Glaze, President, Edu-quest International Inc.
• Joan M. Green, Former Director of Education, Founding CEO of EQAO, International Education Consultant
• Sue Herbert, former Ontario Deputy Minister of Education
• Bill Hogarth, Retired Director of Education, Education Consultant 
• Ken Leithwood, Professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
• Ben Levin, Professor and Canada Research Chair, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education 
• Penny Milton, former CEO Canadian Education Association 
• Charles E. Pascal, Professor, University of Toronto, Former Ontario Deputy Minister of Education
• Jim Slotta, Professor and Canada Research Chair, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
• Charles Ungerleider, Professor Sociology of Education (The University of British Columbia) and Director Research (Directions Evidence and Policy Research Group, LLP.)

Is there something wrong with the way math is taught in Canadian schools?

The recent Cross Country Checkup (April 15, 2012: http://www.cbc.ca/checkup/main-blog/2012/04/15/is-there-something-wrong-with-the-way-math-is-taught-in-canadian-schools/), draws welcome attention to the teaching of mathematics in Canada.

The program’s description makes the claim that, “Canadian students have usually done pretty well in international rankings of math performance but lately they've been slipping.” Murphy infers that performance is slipping because Canada’s ranking among countries in the OECD’s PISA test of 15 year olds went from 7th in 2006 to 10th in 2009. But that inference is not supported by a careful look at the evidence.

First, the number of countries increased, from 57 in 2006 to 65 in 2009.  The significance of a rank depends on a) how many are in the total ranking (i.e.it is better to be 10th out of 100 than to be 5th out of 20) and b) the accuracy of the measure on which the rank depends.  The OECD is clear that not all differences among the rankings are meaningful, just as a poll result may vary by 3 or 4%.  Accordingly, it would be more accurate to say that Canadian performance in math is ‘stable’.  That is, in fact, the conclusion put forward by the Canadian report on PISA 2009.

We also note that there is a substantial literature on the effective teaching of mathematics; we would urge interested Canadians to consult this literature (for example that reported by the U S National Council of Teachers of Mathematics http://www.nctm.org/news/content.aspx?id=23989 or this 2009 report from England - http://www.bestevidence.org.uk/assets/What_works_in_teaching_maths_%28primary_and_secondary%29.pdf), since the research evidence is not always consistent with public opinion.

Canadians should not be complacent about our national education performance.  There is clearly room for improvement as there is in every country, but the mathematics skills of Canadian students are good and there is no reason to think that they are declining.

Sincerely,

·         Ruth Baumann

·         Harold Brathwaite, Executive Director, The Retired Teachers of Ontario

·         Ron Canuel, CEO, Canadian Education Association

·         Gerry Connelly, Co Director Education Sustainability Development Academy, York University

·         Lorna Earl, Director, Aporia Consulting Ltd. and President of the International Congress of School Effectiveness and School Improvement

·         Sue Ferguson, Coordinator, The Learning Consortium, Ontario Institute of Studies in Education

·         Kathleen Gallagher, Professor and Canada Research Chair, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

·         Jane Gaskell, Jane Gaskell, Professor and former dean, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

·         Avis Glaze, President, Edu-quest International Inc.

·         Joan M. Green, Former Director of Education, Founding CEO of EQAO, International Consultant on Public Policy and Performance

·         Sue Herbert, former Ontario Deputy Minister of Education

·         Bill Hogarth, Retired Director of Education, Education Consultant

·         Ken Leithwood, Professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

·         Ben Levin, Professor and Canada Research Chair, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

·         Penny Milton, former CEO, Canadian Education Association

·         Karen Mundy, Professor and Canada Research Chair, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education 

·         Jim Slotta, Professor and Canada Research Chair, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

·         Charles Ungerleider, Professor Sociology of Education (The University of British Columbia) and Director Research (Directions Evidence and Policy Research Group, LLP.)

Why Separate Schools are Out Performing Public Boards

Published in the Globe and Mail
October 12, 2011
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/stephen-gordon/why-separate-schools-are-outperforming-public-boards/article2198221/

The article makes the claim that, "the Ontario education system has set up a remarkably clean and ongoing experiment in the effects of school choice", and argues that, “…competitive pressures on separate school administrators [provide] stronger incentives to provide better education outcomes.” This conclusion is not substantiated by the evidence provided for several reasons.

First, the ‘effect’ is very small; much smaller than other effects such as improving the quality of teaching or using better assessment methods. Second, choice in Ontario is not a ‘clean’ experiment; it is primarily based on religion, so the study cannot rule out other factors that might explain the differences, such as values related to religious education that lead parents to Catholic schools. Third, a very large literature on school choice around the world has produced quite equivocal results and certainly has not consistently reported positive effects of school choice. While there may be many reasons to support school choice, it would be an error to support choice as a primary means of improving school quality.

Sincerely,

• Ruth Baumann
• Ron Canuel, CEO, Canadian Education Association
• Gerry Connelly, Co Director Education Sustainability Development Academy, York University
• Lorna Earl, Director, Aporia Consulting Ltd. and President of the International Congress of School Effectiveness and School Improvement
• Kathleen Gallagher, Professor and Canada Research Chair, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
• Avis Glaze, President, Edu-quest International Inc.
• Joan M. Green, Former Director of Education, Founding CEO of EQAO, International Consultant on Public Policy and Performance
• Ben Levin, Professor and Canada Research Chair, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
• Penny Milton, former CEO, Canadian Education Association
• Karen Mundy, Professor and Canada Research Chair, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
• Jim Slotta, Professor and Canada Research Chair, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
• Charles Ungerleider, Professor Sociology of Education (The University of British Columbia) and Director Research (Directions Evidence and Policy Research Group, LLP.)

Please see the following for further information on School Choice:

Fuller, B., Elmore, R., and Orfield, G. (eds.). (1996). Who chooses, who loses? New York: Teachers College Press.

Gorard, S., & Taylor, C. (2002). Market Forces and Standards in Education: A Preliminary Consideration. British Journal of Sociology in Education, 23(1), 5-18.

Lubienski, Chris. (2001). The relationship of competition and choice to innovation in education markets: A review of research on four cases. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Seattle, WA. Retrieved April 2010, from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/17/14/ec.pdf

Whitty, G., Power, S. & Halpin, D. (1998). Devolution and Choice in Education. Buckingham: Open University Press.