or perhaps they are looking for locations for their own children…

POSTED ON BEHALF OF DOUG

The fact that you people don’t see any problem with this speaks volumes. Schools rated by a real estate agent.

POSTED ON BEHALF OF DOUG

I’m shocked I tell you shocked to discover that the wealthiest schools have the highest test scores. When did this start?

http://www.thestar.com/yourtoronto/education/2012/02/29/want_to_buy_into_a_top_school_real_estate_company_ranks_areas_by_test_scores.html

Wealthiest areas have the highest test scores?

Here’s another correlation:  https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=kumon&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-beta&gws_rd=cr&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&sa=N&tab=wl

Doug, protests a bit too much when someone other than an educator exposes the deep rooted 19th century education philosophy of educating by the social-income status of the students. Simply put, the real estate agent exposes the beast how EQAO results mirrors the schools’ social-income status of students.

No big secret, considering the tons of papers and research by the educationalists who will fight tooth and nail against all who would dare to suggest, academic achievement should be for all children, and not the students who have parents that can compensate in the form of private tutoring and other such measures to compensate for the deficiencies of the public education that has steadfastly refuses to teach all children regardless of social-income status to their full academic potential.

The real estate agent could improved her methodology, by adding the data streams of the number of children in private tutoring lessons, educational products at home designed to improve achievement for children, since the curriculum and teaching pedagogy/practices are standard throughout the province. If the real estate agent is reading this, I ventured over on the FB site, We ARE the Front Lines in Education, to which a lot of parent bashing is on the go. Tsk, how professional is it now, to bash parents because the parents don’t have the resources and access to the resources that would compensate the inefficiencies and poor curriculum of the school in the same way that parents of higher income do it all the time?  https://www.facebook.com/WeAreTheFrontLinesInEducation

On the WAFLE facebook site, the teachers suggest to the real estate agent, “So, if you truly want to service your client base and…...... perhaps you should consider INVITING people to provide feedback on the school(s) in their area by way of an online survey posted on your website. “

A parent survey not what the school has to offered, but rather what the parents are doing at home to compensate the perceived inefficiencies and lack of standards at the school, that are impacting their children’s academic progress. The results will be, the high rankings of schools will correspond to a high numbers of students receiving private tutoring to compensate. It is not the beloved 4 factors cited by educators, but rather the curriculum, pedagogy, and education practices combined with locked access doors to education services beyond the inclusive classroom, that prevents higher achievement for students on the lower income ladder, single parent homes, the ESL students, and the list goes on based on the perceived biases of the public education stakeholders on the deficits of parents.

Below is a typical example, of how the public education system works in tandem to prevent parents, whether low income or high income, from accessing the education services and practices that would aid their children to higher achievement.

On the WISE site - A parent - ” My husband and I got told off by the teacher last week at “Meet the Teachers” night, as the class has not yet learned the term denominator nor how to find a common one. Apparently, we may confuse our son with our methods.
The less confusing method is to spend on average 1.5 hours (over 2 days) to “figure it out by themselves” and then discuss results as a class.
We have continued to help him in the evenings and he has now been told that he cannot keep his “evening” work with his class work as it is not being done the right way… (Im)patiently awaiting return phone call from the principal.”  http://wisemath.org/join/

As such, one of the math professors of the WISE site, kindly responded - ” It is a shame that the school is unwilling to do so and doubly so that they would stop you. Unfortunately there are members of the “consultancy class” who make it their business to go around indoctrinating teachers into these crazy positions, and the one you outline is unfortunately very common, and really is the epitome of what the tinkerers have tried to “accomplish” with WNCP and the attendant prescriptions in how to teach. It’s a big problem, and it is not your fault. It is unfortunate that they seem likely to penalize your child for you providing assistance in this way. Unless you’re up for a big struggle you might consider whether there is another school nearby, assuming that your district has a schools of choice program. Not all schools/teachers have bought into the prevailing dogma so zealously. “

The only reason why the public schools in areas of the upper middle-class have high rankings, are the ability of parents to pay for the private services to compensate the poor instructional and curriculum of the schools. Its too bad, for the lower income schools who are bound and determined to indoctrinate the teachers on the crazy methods, that has only resulted in steady decline of math skills right across Canada, and not just the EQAO results. 

POSTED ON BEHALF OF DOUG

Just don’t get Tom’s post. Is he denying that the wealthiest schools get the best scores? The “League Tables” have shows British for decades that there is a 1:1 relationship between income and test results.

Kumon math has to do with what? Have a pal who worked for Kumon and Oxford. Kids were having no real problems but parents expectations is that they will come top of their class and they were not #1.

Looks to me like Kumon is set up in Yuppie heaven neighbourhoods (Beaches, Danforth, High park…) High achieving parents demanding their kid be #1.

I put one of my children in Kumon because the gr 10 teacher was a real slacker.  Too bad the poorer parents can’t do the same for their children when people aren’t doing their jobs! 

Doug, I know that comparing schools doesn’t sit well with most educrats, but technology is changing everything, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.  Koodos to the real estate agents who are ranking our public and catholic schools for the benefit of home buyers.

Doug, the tutoring facilities are located in the middle-class to the upper class neighbourhoods. Never in the low-income neighbourhoods….....However, approximately 1/3 of their clientele are the lower income parents, looking for education services that the public schools will not provide and have steadfastly refuses to provide, unless the children meets the predetermined narrowly defined criteria to access SE services. In other words, the remediation of the 3 Rs, which is the bread and butter for all tutor places and not the false billing hailing from the education stakeholders as being enrichment education.

There is nothing remotely enriching about a 10 year old receiving tutoring on basic arithmetic and correcting the damage being done by poor and crazy methods being employed in today’s public schools. 

There is brand name tutoring schools - reading, writing and math is the name of the game. Specialized tutoring centres have popped up all over the country, catering to the kids who have been poorly served by the public education schools. Namely, the kids who are struggling with the 3 Rs, identified or non-identified. Direct instruction does wonders, especially when it leads to doing long division, mastering it, and moving onto fractions. Both concepts being poorly taught in today’s Canadian schools. Real shame, because long division is the best method to understand place value. But not according to the so-called experts with education degrees.

At Kumon - “Math. Reading. Confidence.

Welcome to Kumon, the world’s largest after-school math and reading program. The Kumon Method has helped millions of children achieve more than they ever thought they could. We believe it can help your child, too.”  http://www.kumon.ca/

At Oxford - “This year, it’s straight A’s thanks to Oxford Learning!
Parents know, one of the best things you can do for your child is to equip him or her with the right tools to succeed…”
- See more at: http://www.oxfordlearning.com/?gclid=CL2ph5WwxLkCFa87Mgod0hEA7A#sthash.sHt86G4N.dpuf

At Sylvan - “Start the year strong with Sylvan.
Our proven approach blends amazing teachers with…”  http://tutoring.sylvanlearning.com/

The higher income schools will do better, simply because the parents have the means to send their children to private tutoring services. Private tutoring have become a necessary expense, just like paying the mortgage - just as many kids in the upper income groups have learning struggles as what can be found in the middle-class and below. The difference is, as one goes down the income ladder, the public education stakeholders seeks to rationalized education services that remediates and corrects. What is offered is watered down approaches that follows the progressive ideology, that will never allowed the child to reach grade level and above in a relatively short period of time.

Parents with means, don’t wait for the schools nor are the parents willing to have their children languished on waiting lists, nor can they tolerate the excuses their children don’t qualified for remediaton of the 3 Rs.

The educationalists in the public education system, has called the rise of tutoring a threat to the public education system. However, they are unwilling to stemmed the flow by changing their education methods and practices. It is to the best interests of the education stakeholders, their agendas NOT to provide education services that corrects the knowledge and skill gaps of children. Why? Its all about controlling who will or will not received a quality education.

Ergo, as on the WISE math site - the recommendation is ” It is unfortunate that they seem likely to penalize your child for you providing assistance in this way. Unless you’re up for a big struggle you might consider whether there is another school nearby, assuming that your district has a schools of choice program. Not all schools/teachers have bought into the prevailing dogma so zealously.”  http://wisemath.org/join/

What can you do in a school where educators demand parents to dropped the methods of old fashioned algorithms and if not, your child will suffered the consequences in the classroom. Its why the parents who do send their children to private tutors, will keep it quiet in fear of repercussions from the school. Far too many horror stories of kids getting marks deducted for standard algorithms. Rather ironic, by grade 11 - the educators will accept any method including the standard algorithms. Then proceed to asked parents how did their children learned standard algorithms. Of course, professional curiosity takes over when the LD student is sitting in the advance math class, or the kid that was just barely passing math in the last 10 years, all of sudden is an A student. The latter can be found on the radio talk shows condemning the public education schools for what they are not doing - educating each and every child to their full academic potential.

One of the things I tried to get the EQAO to do when I sat on their board was to include questions about tutoring in the survey that goes to parents.  Naturally, they wouldn’t go for it.  As far as I know, they still do not ask parents if they pay for outside tutoring, if they tutor their own children,  how often do they use tutoring services, etc. 

A parent once told me that the principal at the local public high school once facetiously thanked Kumon and Oxford for their great math scores at the graduation ceremonies.

SQE tried to find some data on this from the big tutoring companies, but you can imagine it is not in their best interests to make it public since they profit from the failure of schools to teach basic skills.

Yes, hard-working parents have to take their children to tutors or work very hard with their children at home.  With my daughter I had to work with her for two hours/night from grade five to grade eight.  None of the teachers had taught the math curriculum, and the class was years behind, so my husband and I were stuck doing their work, which teachers are paid very handsomely to do, after we had worked hard all day in order to get our daughter prepared for high school math.

I just made a quick search on tutoring in Canada, and it has jumped another 500 % since 2003. A paper - ” But
over the past decade the tutoring industry has undergone a staggering transformation. The number of formal businesses that offer fuller tutoring services has grown between 200%-500% in major Canadian cities over the past 30 years, a growth that is independent of public school enrolments or economic trends. In Ontario these businesses grew by 60% in the few short years between1996 and 2000.”  http://www.nall.ca/new/aurinidavies.pdf

Another paper dated 2002 - “However, tutoring parents are less satisfied with public education, are more involved in their children’s schooling, and greatly more desiring of private schooling and other educational alternatives. I conclude that for many parents, private tutoring represents a “school choice” by default, an affordable educational option in lieu of
the ability to pay for private schools”
http://www.nall.ca/res/65ScottDavies.pdf

More recent studies, I could not find but in Alberta and BC - http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2013/09/04/calgary-school-education-tutors-edu.html

And here - http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2013/06/09/the-end-of-an-after-school-tutoring-program-in-surrey/

Which is becoming a problem - the public school districts are closing down the free after school tutoring programs.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/calgary/Boom+diploma+exam+tutoring+raises+questions/8496900/story.html

And in BC - “For all the recent expansion in the industry, Harris believes that tutoring remains ripe for innovation. Tutorspree, for one, was born two years ago, when Harris realized that his graduate-student friends moonlighting as tutors found most of their clients by word of mouth—the same way he found his high-school SAT tutor a decade ago. He saw an opportunity for a specialty service that would connect tutors and students based on learning needs and schedules, tutor fees and client budgets. “There are so many highly qualified tutors out there who just can’t get the right exposure,” says Harris.

Other online startups have targeted different niches: Magoosh, for example, prepares students for standardized tests, while StudyEdge offers videos of top teachers delivering university courses. “What we’re seeing is a boom for tutoring overall,” says Harris. ” It’s part of the future of education.”
http://www.profitguide.com/opportunity/an-apple-for-the-tutor-48089

I don’t buy the reasons - its mostly A and B students who are not experiencing trouble in learning. Until there is full studies, why in Canada, from coast to coast - to determined the reasons why students are going to tutors. A trend that has appeared - right across Canada, the C average in math does not cut it for the student who wants to entered into the trades. With seating caps, the trade schools are selecting the cream of the crop - a strong B average or higher. Ergo, private tutoring has stepped in….many of the parents eat the extra costs, and in the process learns why their children have never advance passed a C grade. The public education system and its stakeholders are no longer providing the education services that will allow students to achieve. If a student is a C student in grade 1, the student will remained a C student in grade 12.

If anything, the public education system is doing a great disservice to the Canadian K to 12 students. The public education system are only willing to provide education services that enables students to arrived at a 50 % average. Anything above a 50 % average, will be up to the students/parents’ pocketbooks and skills/abilities of parents. Or as some have put it, the public education system does not provide supplementary education services. If the kid doesn’t learned it in the classroom, its too bad…...........there is always private tutoring, owned and operated by teachers.  Below is one such example of the games that are being played by those who are working in the public education system.

http://tutorsforless.com/tutors/

The gimmick - only certified teachers - but they do cost far less - the Toronto one - starts at $33 for one hour or starts at $132 for one month.

Why don`t they put more money and launch support projects to get the poor schools to do better,oh wait,they did and the administration in the school board used the money to fix the roof and plan a P.D. conference out of town.Silly me!
Those pesky poor kids,why don`t they do their homework!
One idea,maybe the real estate companies could fund tutoring centres in poor neighbourhoods:).
I wish I could stop being so logical.

Can’t have that Joanne - the kids would be exposed to the unapproved methods in math, reading and writing. Oh heaven forbid if the kids learned by heart the rules for decimals, including division of decimals. The latter, my 17 year old last year - sat down with the basic and applied kids - within 10 minutes - no more problems - all the questions, why was it not taught to us in the first place?

What most of the kids sitting in applied and basic math and quite a few in academic are lacking the math rules. Its why they can’t do algebra very well, and of course no mastery of the basic and advance arithmetic concepts does not help.

I can’t think of a single thing that one learns where memory work isn’t the very first step—think about it.  After memory work, comes repetition, then discovery; not the other way around for gawds sake!!