SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

Financial Literacy Counts on Good Numeracy Skills

Financial literacy skills sadly lacking….

So says TD Chief Economist Craig Alexander.  He says that people have no idea how to budget (hmm—some government officials should take note!) and that Canadians could make better financial decisions if they were better informed.  

Garry Marr has a good column in today’s Financial Post reporting on the federal task force set up to examine the issue.

According to Alexander, the reason for this is because of poor fundamental numeracy and literacy skills among Canadians to begin with:

“‘I write a literacy report every year and have been doing this for the last three or four years,” Mr. Alexander was quoted as saying. “I’ll be honest. When I was asked to do the report, I couldn’t imagine Canada could have a literacy problem. We are a modern, knowledge-based economy with a well-developed primary, secondary school and university system.”

International studies have found that about five in 10 adults Canadians don’t have adequate literacy skills, the economist says. When it comes to numeracy skills, six out of 10 Canadians don’t make the grade. The federal government has set up a task force on financial literacy, to which Mr. Alexander has made a 14-page submission.

There’s a link between numeracy and financial literacy, he says, proposing to make financial literacy a part of the curriculum.  

School for Thought suggests he look at making sure kids have good literacy and numeracy skills in the first place, since they are essential for financial literacy. 

Building a Better School

The latest addition to our lending library is The Grammar School: Striving for excellence for 50 years in a public school world. The book tells the story of Halifax's Grammar School, a private school that is now a venerable and hugely-influential institution - but it was not always thus. Written in a very readable and engaging style by a former headmaster, the book illustrates how difficult it is to create a good school. The author documents the school's problems in attracting enough students; schisms, including a breakaway school; struggles with buildings and mortgages; strong personalities and heated resignations, and much more. The excerpt illustrates how difficult it was for the school to resist the progressive pedagogical fads that began to wash over the local public schools in the eighties. (p. 57)

"While the Board steadfastly defended the dismissal of Lankester and reaffirmed its full confidence in the headmaster, the issue refused to die. The Prep School faculty appeared calm on the surface, but the Whole Language conflict took its toll and seeped out into the parent community. The new Prep teacher hired to replace Lankester, Marjorie Cooper, was caught in the crossfire between parents and teachers over Whole Language. By mid-October 1986, she was deeply distressed by 'the sniping at Whole Language' and had to be talked out of quitting by the new head of Prep, Joanne Thompson. Following a rancorous Special General meeting in late November 1986, Montgomery took stock of the situation and was deeply distressed by the internal divisions. He waited until February 1987 and then - with the controversy still lingering - announced his intention to resign at year's end.

"The Whole Language War" divided the Grammar School community and led directly to the departure of Montgomery, a headmaster highly regarded by most HGS students. In his final Spring 1987 Headmaster's Message, Montgomery expressed grave concern for the future of the Grammar School. With a sombre tone and a tinge of sadness, he urged the HGS community to move forward, building upon current strengths while responding to the need for change. Given the successes of recent teaching innovations, he lamented the fact that 'Whole Language is doomed to become a political issue.' 'A school that does not grow,' Montgomery declared, 'is only a monument to its past achievements.' The lesson to be learned, according to Montgomery, was that those very acheivements are only possible in a healthy environment which accepts 'the need for changes and a willingness to accept change, not for its own sake, but to serve the best interests of children.' Exhausted by the struggle, Joanne Thompson left the Prep School in June 1987 and her husband Walter followed suit by resigning from the Board of Governors.

"The Whole Language controversy and the Lankester affairs had a lasting impact. A solid core of HGS faculty, mostly based in the Upper School, had succeeded in dealing a death blow to Whole Language and in reaffirming HGS's commitment to high standards, fundamental skills, intellectual rigour and a challenging curriculum. Students at the Grammar School were torn up by the crisis. In a pithy article in May 27, 1987, Weekly Kazoo, entitled 'A question of Morale,' Eric Brock asked, 'Why is HGS falling down when it is being built?' 'No matter what is occurring behind the scenes, the phony smiles...it is ultimately the students who will keep the school alive. Not the teachers or the parents, but you the overworked, undermarked students.' For the foreseeable future, educational standards were definitely 'in', and Whole Language and classroom computers were effectively 'out' at the Grammar School."

Life in the Fast Lane

Here's a link to an article in Wired Magazine that discusses the physiological changes that allegedly occur in the brains of frequent Internet users. What kind of brain is the Web giving us? Along the way, the article touches on some important - and worth reading about - issues concerning such things as working memory, but the bottom line is that there is good news and bad news. The good news is frequent surfers improve in terms of things like quick absorption of information and "fast-paced problem solving, particularly when it requires spotting patterns in a welter of data". The bad news is they are "much more easily distracted, had significantly less control over their working memory, and were generally much less able to concentrate on a task". Those who value their ability to read and think deeply might want to consider reducing their Internet use.

Blog Tweak

The comments for each post now scroll continuously. So if you wish to access the latest postings, just scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page.

Readers, Here’s a tip for you

If you have been suffering from blog-annoyia lately, click here for relief.

A Second Opinion on Learning Disorders

A tip of the hat to Nancy for providing a link to this video. It is absolutely amazing! It discusses recent advances in brain imaging and suggests that the new technology can be used to better diagnose and understand the different types of learning disorders. For example, almost half of kids diagnosed as "autistic" may actually be suffering from hitherto-undetectable brain seizures, a condition that is quite treatable by medication. We look forward to further discoveries regarding other types of learning disorders.

Disclaimer: SQE does not vouch for the soundness of this hypothesis, as nothing has been published in peer-reviewed journals nor have these results been replicated. 

How In the World Does Canada Do?

This posting is in response to Bev’s request for definitive information about Canada’s performance in terms of international testing. Since this issue was dealt with in an earlier posting, I am going to enjoy a lazy Sunday and just post the link to this earlier posting. If you have further questions, just make a comment and I will do my best to provide the requested data.

Voting With Their Feet

There has been some discussion in the comments to “Cutting Off One’s Nose to Spite One’s Face” about whether Ontario’s Catholic school boards are being hit as hard as the public boards by declining enrollment. Using the Provincial Daily Enrollment statistics as presented on our Sunshine on Schools web-site, I learned that the public boards have lost approximately 5% of their students since 2003, while the Catholic boards have lost only about 2.6% of their students over the same time period. 

Given the paucity of information about the comparative performance of schools and the fact that you have to be Catholic to send your children to a Catholic elementary school (albeit not to a Catholic high school), this 2.4% differential is a fairly powerful indication of parents’ preference for Catholic schools. Only about a third of Ontarians are Catholic, meaning that the 2.5% advantage translates to more like a 7.5% advantage over 6 years. 

Just like Avis, the province’s Catholic boards are aware that they are number 2, and so they are trying harder. Perhaps if the Catholic boards continue to gain market share, the public boards will start to pull up their socks. We live in hope!

Faith in KIPP Schools

In a comment to School Choice 101, TDSBNW mentioned a forthcoming Mathematica study of KIPP schools, saying “Mathematica has a history of doing thorough research and data crunching, and does not mince details even if they are not what the customer wanted”. This study has now been published - “Student Characteristics and Achievement in 22 KIPP Schools”. As this is a long-term study (continuing through 2014), it is an interim report, but nevertheless the results are stunning. The study found that, even though entering students’ achievement levels are on average lower than the district average, they make substantial progress in both literacy and math. The average improvement statistics included all students who had ever enrolled at the schools, even students who spent only one year in a KIPP school, as well as the results for two schools that lost their KIPP affiliation during the course of the study. This means that the study’s positive findings are probably conservative when it comes to students who spend four years in a KIPP school.

For more information about KIPP schools, click here. In a nutshell, these are US middle schools that enroll mostly poor, minority students and send more than 90% of their graduates to college preparatory high schools and more than 85% on to college. They are living proof that demographics are not destiny.

Faith in Religious Schools

In a comment to “Cutting Off One’s Nose to Spite One’s Face”, Dave questions whether religious schools achieve generally better academic outcomes. That they do has been well accepted ever since James Samuel Coleman published High School Achievement: Public, Catholic, and private schools compared back in 1982. Unfortunately, I had trouble finding much about the religious advantage on-line because the finding predates the Internet. This is the best I could do, The kind of off-hand reference to the superior performance of students at religious schools bears out the fact that this is something that everybody agrees about. Incidentally, Dave references the superior performance of students at Bishop Strachan School (BSS) as evidence that non-religious schools get just as good results. Obviously, one swallow does not a summer make, but just for the record BSS is - at least nominally - a religious school (Anglican).

God in the Classroom: The controversial issue of religion in Canada’s schools is available from our lending library, and I would be delighted to lend it to Dave on request. The author, Lois Sweet, then a reporter at the Toronto Star, won an Atkinson Fellowship to examine religious schools. The story of her journey makes interesting reading. In her own words:

“When I submitted my proposal, I never dreamed that two years later I’d not only still be immersed in this subject, but my own views would have undergone such a transformation. It wasn’t that I was hostile to religiously based schools when I began, but I did feel strongly about public education. To me, public education carries both a promise and a hope- promise of an academically sound education that’s open and accessible to all. A hope of fostering in future citizens the skills and attitudes necessary for sustaining relationships of trust and solidarity and equality. I was wary of a movement that seemed to have the potential to undermine both.” (pp. ix-x)

“I’m convinced that a public debate could open the door to a reconsideration of an education system that excludes religious education from its schools. It should also lead to a reconsideration of the justice, or equity, of our current attitude to public funding for independent schools. As we enter the twenty-first century, a fundamental part of this debate must examine whether we can afford to perpetuate a preference for one branch of the Christian faith, Roman Catholicism, on the basis of a constitution devised in another era. I think not.” (p. 252)