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SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
The Cartel
Seems that the Michael Moore school of film has started an epidemic of documentaries.
The Cartel is a yet-to-be-released feature documentary about "how American public education primarily serves its employees, not its children," says the film's official website. You can view a video sample of the trailer. The background story is here and a review is here.
While this documentary looks at American education, there are still enough parallels to Canadian education that might make it worthwhile viewing. Let's hope the Toronto Film Festival and other Canadian film venues think so too. While school kids in Canada are force-fed "An Inconvenient Truth", this one looks as if it might shake things up on the education scene.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Canadian History Report Card
The Dominion Institute has just released an inter-provincial comparison of Canadian high school history curricula. Not one province gets an 'A' in the Canadian History Report Card. Quebec, believe it or not, is a good student of our history and gets the highest mark--a B+. Ontario scores a B, but Alberta, Saskatchewan, NFLD & PEI get F's!
The report card on history is very similar to SQE's cross-Canada comparison of K-12 science curricula: Teaching Science in the 21st Century. I guess when it comes to science, Alberta has it figured out because it was the only province to get an A grade in our study.
It would be great if more of these studies could be carried out in other subject areas. Math would be a great one to tackle at next. Well readers, what do you think?
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Time to Think Outside the Box
If a frog is placed in boiling water, according to the story, it will jump out, but if it is placed in cold water that is gradually heated, it will stay there until it is cooked to death. This must be the explanation behind the cheerful willingness of Salmon Arm parents to camp out for two days and nights in a school parking lot so that they can get their kids into French immersion.
We at School for Thought find this quite surprising. We could understand if it happened only the first year that French immersion was offered, or if it happened one year when there was an unexpectedly large number of parents wanting French immersion for their children. But this is not the case. Every year, there are too few French immersion places, and every year a number of parents - mostly low-income parents who can't manage to camp out - are forced to give up their dream of enrolling their children in French immersion.
Why is no one asking the school board to expand its French immersion program? Why are these parents so willing to passively accept whatever the school board decides to grant them? Would they be so passive if the hydro authority decided to produce too little electricity?
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Party Time
An interesting article in today's The Globe and Mail deals with the party atmosphere in Ontario schools this month. With report cards already issued in some school boards, there really isn't much point to school from now on. Camps, track meets, field trips, softball tournaments, theme parks, movies - it's party time!
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
School Proofing Your Kids
The Society has just released a list of recommended teaching materials that parents can use to safeguard their children's learning. Teachers - many of these materials are suitable for use in your classroom!
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Primary Math - Best Instruction Methods Studied
The Canadian Council on Learning has released a meta-analysis of the most promising practices in primary mathematics instruction.
While the authors set out to prove that child-centred practices would be the method of choice, after examining some of the research literature published over the last seventeen years they concluded that:
"the use of specific appropriate learning strategies is more important than the use of learning strategies in general. Indeed, we found treatments featuring teacher-led learning strategy instruction to be the most effective."
In other words child-centred practices are not as effective as teacher-directed specific instruction, and teachers and teacher training may be the most important factor in achievement. The authors also found that computer use was not the best way to enhance mathematics instruction in the primary grades.
Readers of this blog who have young students or a child who is struggling with math might want to look at SQE's Stairway to Math practice math sheets. The materials are designed to help students improve their math skills.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Provincial Parent Board Silenced
It seems that by speaking out the Provincial Parent Board has lost its voice. This is no case of laryngitis either--the vocal chords have been permanently cut.
Moira MacDonald reports in today's Toronto Sun that Education Minister Kathleen Wynne has decided to dismantle the Board by September of this year.
Seems that several PPB members had criticized the ministry and minister because they felt they were being hamstrung by bureaucratic blockades preventing them from representing parents' voices in the province. So much for allowing parental engagement.
It's already a shame that school councils, which began with such hope and promise, have lost their lustre. School councils' main purpose was to monitor student achievement and to allow parents to advise on issues affecting their children's education. Most now have fundraising as their main purpose. This latest move to stifle parents smacks of censorship and control. It wasn't supposed to be this way.
MacDonald writes: "We should also wonder what this means about the government's commitment to letting parents truly have a voice. If the system can't handle skilled, opinionated parents at the highest levels, what are the chances for those up against an obstinate school principal who's out of the media spotlight."
We should wonder indeed. We should also wonder why the only voice the minister seems to listen to is her "Partnership Roundtable"--a group made up of the usual stakeholders of teachers' unions, school board associations, principal's associations, and other organizations supportive of the current government. Remember what happened to the School Finder Website the day after she met with the Partnership's vocal oppostion to the comparison feature? 'Nuf said.
MacDonald's article ends with this question: "How many times will government ask parents the same questions and get the same answers before parents see their ideas transformed into real change?"
SQE has the easy answer: break the monopoly and let parents choose their schools!
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Teaching to the Test - or Teaching the Test?
Ontario's College of Teachers makes public its disciplinary hearings, which make interesting reading for anyone with a blind faith in his or her children's teachers. Check out the June 2009 batch. Of particular interest is the case of Annette Snow, a principal who cheated during the province's EQAO testing. Snow "opened sealed tests, permitted photocopying, and encouraged teachers to 'do what they could' to ensure good test scores". "During the administration of one grade 3 test, Snow provided instructions, suggestions, and help to students on how to answer questions to ensure they gave correct answers, including providing an example of a 'story web' on the blackboard."
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
No Fail Policy and the Ivory Tower
It seems that Ontario Deputy Minister Levin's memo regarding the government's "No-Fail" policy has garnered a response from Ivory Tower Blues author James Côté and Jon Cowans. It is a scathing analysis of Levin's "propagandistic missive" (the authors' words, not mine):
"If we are not providing secondary school students with a meaningful and challenging education, is it any wonder that some opt to leave before graduating and others lack the suitable preparation for post-secondary education? If Levin were committed to a full disclosure of the facts, he would be directing the Ministry of Education to address the limitations of the system over which it has a fiduciary duty, not ignore the facts that point to those limitations. A disservice is being done to all by his misinformation."
Côté speaks from experience and is not the only voice speaking out about lax standards.
In the latest issue of our newsletter, The Forum, SQE reported on the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations survey which indicated that first-year university students are less prepared than ever before. Incoming students have lower writing and numeric skills, lower maturity, and a belief that good grades are an entitlement. The OCUFA president noted that the Ontario government has been applauding itself for increasing high school graduation rates but that many of the graduates are inadequately prepared for university.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Making Schools Safer for Whom?
The June 8 entry on the Crux of the Matter blog discusses the school safety bill recently passed by the Ontario government. Coincidentally, right around the same time it was announced that three Ontario school administrators who had failed to report an alleged sexual assault on one of their female students would suffer no legal consequences. As one of the Crux of the Matter commenters points out, parents would be foolish to put their faith in government promises to protect their children in school.