SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

Oakville Chit Chat

Readers who live in the Mississauga, Milton, Oakville & Burlington area may be interested in Oakville Chit Chat, a blog for local residents. There is an education corner, and if you put your cursor on the education tab, you get a drop-down menu for public, Catholic, and private. There seems to be a fair amount of anger directed towards the school boards per se, especially the public board…

Teaching-Disabled Students

In England, 21% of all students are labelled “special education needs” (SEN), for a total of 1.7 million children, with the attendant army of specialist teachers. Now the government has announced that students must have been formally diagnosed with specific diagnoses such as autism or dyslexia in order to receive SEN support. Saying that many of the identified students have been so labelled in order to cover up poor teaching, the Education Secretary expects the new measure to reduce the percentage of SEN students by at least 10%. The teachers’ union, predictably, is crying bloody murder, since the new measure will result in fewer specialist teachers. 

We will monitor this new policy with great interest, especially with regard to what percentage of students lose their SEN designation. In Ontario, approximately 13% of students are provided with special services, with about two-thirds of them having a formal designation. 

What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?

In a comment to Saxon Math, Anyone?, Chuck asks what we think of the Ontario Premier’s announcement that Ontario high school graduation rates have risen to 81%. 

Well, our first reaction is that it’s a bit weird for him to be bragging about this, since his original pledge had been to raise high school completion rates to 85% by 2011.

Our second reaction is fairly well summed up by the comments to the newspaper announcement, namely that more students are passing because standards have been lowered - as opposed to more students attaining the former standard. Over the past several years, the Ontario Ministry of Education has had a number of initiatives along these lines - from a dumbed down curriculum, to credit recovery programs, to automatic bumps for marks as low as 39%, to a requirement that teachers formally defend every failing mark, to prohibitions against deducting marks for late or incomplete assignments, to co-op placements that count as high school credits, and on and on. 

As Lowering Higher Education, the new book by two UWO professors (soon to be reviewed), so aptly puts it: “A system can certainly ensure that virtually all students complete high school by ignoring non-compliance with basic academic standards and behavioural requirements, but what kind of education are these students receiving?”

Can U spell K-I-N-D-L-E?

Picking up on Malkin’s March 2nd post, Pandora’s Box, about computers in the classroom, I suggest that we beware of gifts in smaller packages.  The latest technological classroom fad is the e-reader, which has revolutionized the book industry.  Avid fans (and I should mention I envy them) of e-readers sing their praises.  But the jury is out on their classroom use.

Two articles that caught my attention.  The first reports on an Illinois elementary school that has introduced the Kindle e-reader into the classroom to get students “excited about reading.”  The e-reader also has a read-aloud feature that the school says will help some students learn to sound out words.  The other headline juxtaposes with these words:  OMG! textspeak in schoolwork .  The report goes on to say that teachers at Vancouver, WA schools are concerned at the amount of texting lingo that is creeping into serious school assignments.  Here’s an example: “i luv Romeo & Juliet cuz u get to c how in luv the 2 caractrz r :p”  Translation please.

“It’s easy, and we’re lazy,” said 17-year-old Ben Lyons, a senior at Heritage High School. “We like to take the easy route.”

And this doesn’t mean that the easy way is the better way:

While shorthand writing is handy for texting, it just causes problems in the classroom, 17-year-old Derrick Easley said. While he may spend less time writing the assignment, he spends more time editing and correcting the work, he said.

Is all this worth the cost?  (Keep in mind an e-reader costs a few hundred dollars and when handled by hundreds of kids will certainly have to take a lot of abuse!)  Will this translate into improved student achievement?  Or are we creating another problem that will need solving?

So, readers what do you think? 

Saxon Math, Anyone?

The Canadian Council on Learning has published this map of Canada which is divided into 52,000 neighbourhoods and communities, coloured according to how numerate each one is. Dark green is the very best, with "only" 34% of its population deemed incapable of working and living fully in a modern population, while dark red is the very worst with more than 59% of its population in this category. Obviously, there is a huge disparity among communities. You can drill down and examine trends by clicking on the tabs at the top of the map. The bottom line is that "55% of adult Canadians are lacking in the basic numeracy skills they need to navigate their lives". 

Sunday at the Movies (Doretta Wilson - Superstar)

Here's a 32-minute clip of Doretta Wilson on TVO's The Agenda. In watching this, your assignment is to figure out what's going on in Annie Kidder's head as she expresses doubt about whether we should allow the proliferation of alternative schools. Bear in mind that Annie sends her own daughter to one such school (one of the "artsy ones", FYI, that she dismissively mentions).

If the clip won't play for you, go to tvo.org/cfmx/tvoorg/theagenda, and click on An Education for All.

The $160,000,000 Gorilla Behind the Scenes

A comment to our David versus Goliath posting expressed doubt that the Ontario teachers’ unions get involved in the grassroots side of provincial elections. Here is evidence that the Catholic teachers’ union is already mobilizing the troops.

The same commenter asserted that the unions are not the primary cause of the problem, since they do not decide what teaching methods and curriculum are used. This is of course true in a direct sense, but nevertheless the unions do have a powrful influence in this sphere as well.

Since the unions favour small classes (small classes = more teachers), they therefore favour individualized teaching methods that can’t possibly work in large classes. Individualized teaching methods are of course one of the hallmarks of the progressive approach. Other aspects of the progressive approach also appeal to unions, in that they generate additional teaching personnel (ie, more union members). For example, modern teaching methods generate a lot of students with learning difficulties that necessitate resource teachers, consultants, and other interventions. The fact that so many students struggle in school allows the unions to make the case for all-day junior and senior kindergarten = a bonanza of new union members. All in all, progressive teaching methods are very favourable to union growth.

Because the progressive approach is beneficial to the teachers’ unions, they work behind the scenes to encourage its use. The unions are very influential throughout the education world. This paper, for example, shows the institutionalized power they wield in the faculties of education. They are similarly influential in the Ministry of Education, the Ontario College of Teachers, and the school boards. 

I’m not saying that the ministry and the school boards would drop progressive methods like a hot potato if the unions backed off. However, I think a case for research-based methods and curriculum would have a better chance if the unions were less powerful.

Some of my best friends are teachers….

Of course I’m being a bit ironic with the title, although it happens to be true. So it is in the spirit of a friendly warning that I bring this Jon Stewart clip to the attention of my teacher friends. Jon is warning you, in his sarcastic way, that the fabulous salaries and benefits your union has won for you may be coming back to bite you.

Ontario last year projected a deficit of almost $25 BILLION, and the next government is going to have to slash spending. Looking into my crystal ball, I predict that the teachers’ unions will be most unhelpful in this cause and, when they continue to insist on salaries that approach $100,000, people’s minds will turn to teachers’ 12 weeks of holidays, guaranteed jobs, and all those PD days.

Bottom line: the teachers’ unions may not be doing their members all that much of a favour anymore.

Media Alert

Doretta Wilson will be a panelist on TVOntario’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin tonight at 8 p.m.  The discussion will centre on the issue of alternative schools in Ontario, particularly schools established for less affluent students, such as the DSBN Academy in Welland, Ont.

The Welland school is based on the LaJolla, California Preuss Charter School.   Preuss is described as:

 “a charter middle and high school dedicated to providing a rigorous college prep education for motivated low-income students who will become the first in their families to graduate from college.  The Preuss School also serves as a model school to study and develop best practices in the preparation of low-income, urban students for college admission to be disseminated to improve public education.”

Who could argue with that? Certainly not the kids who graduate from Preuss.  What can be argued, perhaps, is the poor way that the Niagara District Board communicated the announcement of this school.   Instead of looking at this as a unique opportunity, this was labelled by some as negative.

Yesterday I attended an information session for a Christo Rey School that is planned for Toronto.  The Christo Rey Network of schools is a unique model designed to provide educational opportunities to less-advantaged students.  I invite readers to watch the the video and if you don’t shed a tear at the end, you don’t have a heart.

Loyal readers of this blog know that SQE has always promoted school choice and proven effective practices in order to improve learning for all students.  A one-sized-fits-all education system just does not work for a significant portion of our students.  Our latest own informal survey question so far shows that what people want from education is quite varied.    So why not have schools that give kids a leg up?  KIPP, Pathways to Education, Christo Rey, charter schools, a voucher—-whatever it takes.  

Stay tuned.

A Pandora’s Box

Every week Educhatter tackles a different educational topic and gives it a rather thorough treatment. This week, he is writing about computers in schools, and how an approach called "desktop virtualization" can give every student computer access for a fraction of the cost. 

There are 28 comments so far, and they are worth reading. Interestingly, I find myself on the same side as Doug Little on this one, in that we both question the rush to technology in schools. I mean, let's face it - the kids are already fabulously computer literate and would be no matter what happens in schools. I think it's fair to say that most of their skills were picked up outside school. In fact, an interesting conceit is to imagine what would happen if the teaching of computer literacy were left to schools - as the teaching of reading mostly is now. Would we have 42% computer illiteracy under these circumstances? 

Computers are just another tool, like pencils and books, and all tools can be misused. Actually, computers have a huge potential for misuse - think of texting, porn, Facebook, role playing games, and all the other seductive attractions that desktop virtualization might open up to students. And, of course, computers' flashy applications like Power Point can mask the fact that students lack deep knowledge and understanding.

Tools are only as good as the hand that is wielding them. I suggest (insert sound of broken record here) that schools focus on the mastery of academic learning, using whatever tools are affordable and appropriate for the task.