Generally I agree but public sector bound by many rules and budgets.

Devils in the details.

I agree with Doug.  It is a mistake is to judge policies and programs by their results.  It is the intentions that are important.

We can avoid these misunderstandings if we hire a few more bureaucrats, and teach public school kids to be grateful for nothing.

I spent most of the morning and part of the afternoon, on looking at the numbers. My nose started to twitch, and so since it was raining, I thought to put my rusty skills and knowledge of bureaucracy to good use. After plowing through many numbers, facts and the changes that were made recently for SE funding - I have a challenge for the Ontario educrats. Tell me if I am wrong, provide the evidence and facts - Only $6 million dollars set aside, a dedicated fund for achievement of special education students in areas of reading, writing and numeracy. At the maximum - $10 million dollars. Only $6 to $10 million dollars for the whole province of Ontario dedicated for the achievement of SE students out of a 2 billion dollar plus budget for special education.

I still have a few more trails to follow but essentially Doug is correct. The vast majority of SE students are lucky to obtained $500 over and above, never mind the $20,000 dollar amount. The students received almost sweet dick all are the SE students who have the invisible disabilities. SE student who are part of the invisible disabilities, also are the same ones who are in great need in corrective remediation in reading, writing and numeracy. Pity, the access doors are locked to the services. The funding formula essentially is the mechanism to control who will or will not received SE services beyond the inclusive classroom. The funding formula hog-ties the schools every way but loose, and at the end the schools are not properly funded. The real losers are the kids with the invisible disabilities.  The LD students are double-losers, since they are at the end of low funding and at the other end, the education and classroom practices and policies often do more harm than good.

The lucky kids are the ones that can escape to the Dunblaine School or a school like it. If not, the kid would be lucky to have parents who have the skills and knowledge to tutored them or pay for a private tutor. To be sure the devil is in the details or it should be the many devils. It is rather odd though, there is deadly silence hailing from certain silos of the K to 12 education silence. More so from the teachers’ unions, who are benefiting from the increase members and staff. One would think that at least some educators would alert the public, the SE students and more so the LD students are being cheated out of an education.

Would love to see an LD class-action lawsuit in Ontario. Why?  From what numbers I had to work with, the funding formula is the mechanism that keeps SE children at the bottom of the achievement charts. The formula is designed with the purpose of delivering minimum education services to all students at the cheapest possible price. As in the Moore case, the Ontario SE students are constantly being kicked off the education ramp before they can access the education offerings delivered to non-SE students. The lawsuit would quickly determine discrimination has taken place.  If not that, a full forensic audit on SE should take place not only for Ontario but across Canada.

You got that wrong Tom. The RESULTS show CANADA has by far the world’s best education system.

OECD PISA results oriented people say USA’s dismal results based on poverty and concentrations of that poverty.

OECD tells Canada the only way left to improve is universal public ECE.

I am all about results. The results of Charters are dismal. Check out DC.

I mentioned in my previous posts, I was still following a few trails. One of the trails I stumbled unto very early in my search, was the education companies owned and operated by teachers. My my, some expensive software being offered. I even stumbled upon the home version, with the retail price of $159. Better software can be had in the market place, but I bet the software developers did not have the advantage of using facilities paid by the taxpayers. Would love to have an audit as how the education facilities are being used to create and developed educational products for the expressed purpose of profit.

The profit part is damning as it is, how about this one Doug? SE girls received less SE funding than the SE boys. Equity of the educrats eh Doug?  However, I am quite sure educators who moved up the ladder remain very quiet when they are crunching the numbers. Perhaps, they may not know the significance of the calculations given the state of math achievement and curriculum in the K to 12, but I won’t cut them a break. For parents who have SE kids, in the fall an exercise one might undertake is to demand why girls are being rated differently than boys. Don’t let them get away with the obvious response - because there is more SE boys than girls. Gosh, even the researchers in the fields of LD have confirmed that there should be as many LD girls as LD boys. Only in the K to 12 schools, two-thirds are boys and one-third are girls.

Now that we got gender discrimination established, there is also the ranking of the sub-groups of SE, where some sub-groups are at the lower part of the totem pole. One can see it as this way, the cancer therapy patient A receives the water-down version based on a mixed social-economic measures and patient B receives only a mild water-down version and patient C receives the full treatment Guess which patient lives?  Thankfully, it does not happen in our health system, but it happens all the time in the K to 12. Another trail I am following Doug and the numbers are very revealing.

So Doug perhaps Tom is correct - “We can avoid these misunderstandings if we hire a few more bureaucrats, and teach public school kids to be grateful for nothing.”  Just think Doug what a few more bureaucrats could do to erect more illusions and barriers to stop students from asking, “Please Sir, I want some more.”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4iEdMMjqdA  Or in this demanding the public to accept a desk, a set of books but no guarantee one will come out mastering the 3 Rs and other skills after 12 years of schooling.

Boys are usually in more expensive SE programs with higher unit costs like Behavioural.

If educational materials are produced using board resources they are the property of the board. If not they are the property of the producer.

Nothing new there. Teachers have been writing textbooks since before we were all born. Software just a new platform.

Go find another conspiracy Nancy.

Check out the massive fraud and abuse of charter and voucher schools in the USA. Now there is a scandal for you.

Nancy - this is awesome, but you should summarize, provide citations, and edit ferociously.  Otherwise we’ll lose the thread of your argument.

——

With Doug’s guidance, I have prepared a math question suitable for EQAO.  It involves reading and interpreting graphs.

The question is “Identify the world’s best education system.”  Hint: Look for a red circle.

http://cheeseandcrackers.ca/pisa2012.JPG

http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/09/27/and-the-worlds-most-educated-country-is/

World’s Best education system Tom.

DISTAR, Engelmann.
Works, tested, proven.
This curriculum does not assume any previous knowledge from home but teaches step by step.

Why not this in senior kindergarden and in disadvantaged areas?

I’ve read a lot of Engelmann’s books and materials; honest and competent. One of the few curriculums in North America that have actually been tested with real kids.

http://www.childrenofthecode.org/interviews/engelmann2.htm

If from Europe yells in the forest does anyone hear?

There is no motivation to do anything when you lead the world by such a wide margin.

Mr. Doug, the RESULTS of Ontario students are MEDIOCRE, MUCH LOWER than the results of countries that are poorer.

I predict they will continue to trend even lower because these results reflect what happened in grade one ten years ago. Today the quality of instruction in grade one - and elementary school in general -  is low and there are no changes to improve it.

Yes, I agree with you Canada is not US.
It is a very rich country where very few people outside aboriginal reserves live in abject poverty, where they do not have shelter, food, clothes and shoes.
So why are the RESULTS so POOR compared to how RICH we are as a country?

This of course is total nonsense. Ma y poor countries stream the students very heavily and then want you to look at only the top stream.

Look at the nations below Canada on PISA. LOOK AT THE DEGREE DIPLOMA %. You cannot touch Canada.