A Lesson in Arithmetic

In April, the Ontario government announced that it would spend $60 on measures designed to improve math outcomes. My own analysis, and that of many others, concluded that this money will be just about totally wasted, as it is to be spent on just more of the same (more).

Now, the English government has announced that it will spend £41 - very roughly the same amount as the Ontario government - on a measure designed to improve the country's math scores. The English initiative is far more promising than its Ontario counterpart, as it involves the expansion of a method that is already being successfully used in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai - jurisdictions that score at the top of international math rankings.  more

Sadly, this very promising initiative is unlikely to be welcome in Ontario any time soon, as it involves a mastery approach that allows the whole class to progress together at the same rate. Another unpopular-in-Ontario aspect is that although the Asian mastery approach does not emphasize rote learning and drilling, it does require the students to have automatic recall of basic number facts and other fundamentals.  And lastly, there is crucial difference between England and Ontario in that the English initiative will be available to interested schools but not imposed on any schools - while Ontario schools will have no choice but to do the Ministry of Education's bidding. H/T TH & TB

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