Education is too important to be left to the politicians

I'm going to try something different this week. Instead of a daily post for the rest of this week, there will be only today's blog - with the expectation that our readers will start a dialogue that will last all week. The hope is that we will get a pooling of ideas and information that will lead to a better understanding of the topic. Today's topic, class, is education and politics.

When I became aware of the problems with Ontario education back in 1987, I began reading everything I could lay my hands on about the subject. As a former teacher, I had some knowledge about pedagogy and classroom practices, but no knowledge about the research. I soon learned that there was virtually no evidence to support what was going on at my son's school. (It was a very "child-centred" school - lots of hands-on learning, work stations, discovery activities, projects, group work, play, and so on.)

My first assumption was that the principal and teachers at my son's school were unaware of the research and that all I needed to do was bring it to their attention. I was partly right - they were unaware of the research - and partly wrong - they had no interest in changing. All I succeeded in doing was making enemies at the school.

Around this time, I started to learn that the phenomenon was not unique to my son's school, and so I decided to go to the school board with my research information. Although I tried many different times in many different ways with many different people, the bottom line was that no one at the school board was interested in information that might lead to higher student achievement.

I then started working with other like-minded people from around the province, and we formed an organization called the Organization for Quality Education. We all thought that what was needed was for the provincial government to step in and take action and do something to find a way to induce educators to start using proven teaching methods and materials. We lobbied the government of the day to introduce reforms like more testing, a better provincial curriculum, standardized report cards, mandatory school councils, and so on. It seemed obvious to us then that this kind of forced accountability would shame educators into switching.

Then along came Mike Harris who, amazingly, brought in all the things our organization was asking for and more besides. His government created a provincial testing body that administered annual tests and published the results. Because there hadn't been a real curriculum for many years, his government created one. They created the Ontario College of Teachers to protect the public against bad teachers. They brought in mandatory professional development for teachers, extended the school year, reformed the way schools were funded, and on and on. 

During this period, the government was more than happy to work with us, welcoming our knowledge of the research. 

Unfortunately, the Harris government reforms produced only a small spike in test scores. For the most part, teachers continued to use the same flawed teaching methods they had been using for more than 20 years. Worse, the Harris government reforms didn't last very long. Most of them were undone by the Liberal government that succeeded the Conservatives or else subverted by the education establishment. 

At present, we have had a Liberal government in power since 2003. During this period, according to all international testing - PISA, TIMSS, PIRLS - there has been a significant decline in the achievement of Ontario students. A cynic would say that the Liberal government's education policies have mostly been designed to propitiate the teachers' unions and guarantee labour peace. This includes very expensive measures, such as huge wage hikes, all-day kindergarten, and capped primary class sizes. None of these big-ticket items has been shown by research to improve student outcomes.

During the past ten years, the Liberal government has ignored any information we have provided about the lack of a research base for its various measures - refusing to meet with us or answer our correspondence.

If the administrations I have dealt with - at the school, school board, or provincial level - were guided by considerations regarding the students' well-being, they would have listened to the valuable information we have to offer. That they are unwilling to listen suggests that political considerations over-ride the good of the students.

Georges Clemenceau said that war is too important to be left to the generals. In the same vein, I suggest that education is too important to be left to the politicians.

Comments?

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