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SQE Newsletter
Vol. 22, No. 2. June 2013
ISSN-1201-215
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Help Us Get our Message Out!
Share this letter now:  
FROM THE PRESIDENT
It's June, and soon school will be out - meaning that parents' best time to remediate their children is nigh. After-schooling works much better in the summer, because it can be done in prime time when kids aren't already exhausted and/or have piles of homework. As well, in the summer parent teachers are not working at cross-purposes against school teachers with different pedagogical approaches.
Parents who plan to tutor their children this summer can determine their children's current reading, spelling, and math levels by taking these free placement tests. And the Society for Quality education makes available free remedial programs in reading and math.
You can help us reach more kids by making a tax-deductible donation. More information here.
Regards, Malkin Dare
PS Did you know you can direct your United Way donations to us?
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| Did you know that SQE has a speaker's bureau? If you belong to a group, like a school council or a professional association or an ethnic club, that invites speakers to address its meetings, we would be happy to send someone to talk to your group. Your group will enjoy our speaker, plus he or she will definitely give your group some food for thought! Contact Doretta for more information. |
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 A veteran of the school wars herself, with the scars to prove it, Malkin Dare has had lots of experience dealing with education problems. If you want some been-there-done-that advice, give Malkin a call at 519-884-3166 or e-mail her at [email protected].
Question
My husband and I are moving back to Ontario this summer and we want to get the very best education we possibly can for our three children aged six through 11. Because our income isn't enough to pay for private schools, we need to buy a house in the catchment area of an excellent public school. I would appreciate your help in finding such a school. Katherine, Houston, TX
Answer
There are two institutions that rank Ontario schools - the Fraser Institute and the C.D. Howe Institute. Of course, these rankings by no means tell the whole story about a school - to get a feel for how good a school is and whether it is a good match for your family, you need to visit the school, sit in on some classes, talk to other parents, and so forth. My free book How to Get the Right Education for Your Child has a section on how to go about this.
Believe it or not, it can be expensive to enroll your children in good public schools. People do pay attention to school rankings, and the real estate agents know all about them. Houses in neighbourhoods with highly-ranked schools typically cost considerably more than houses in neighbourhoods with poorly-ranked schools.
Depending on how much of a premium you would have to pay if you bought a house in the catchment area of a highly-ranked school, you might want to keep an open mind about private schools. Many private schools keep their tuition rates low and discount the fees for additional children. It may be more cost-effective to buy a relatively-inexpensive house in the neighbourhood of a poorly-ranked school and send your kids to a private school.
My two cents' worth!
Regards, Aunt Malkin
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Grade Inflation
The nature of standards has risen its ugly head recently, most spectacularly with the "no zero" policy of boards of education. In the mid-1980's my high school had a battle royale when we faced the threat of poaching by a neighbouring school that was doling out high marks to all and sundry. Their calculus teacher, for example, was awarding median marks of 91%. Students who really understood the subject would be granted a mark of 95%, while students who did not have a good grasp of the subject were restricted to a mere 90%. Great pressure was put on our science and math departments to emulate our rivals, and the new math head demanded that all students who put in regular attendance and made an effort automatically earn at least 80%. Peterborough, ON
Same Sex Education
I note that girls seem to do better than boys in school generally, although I believe that in Clackmannanshire there were no gender differences among children who had received direct instruction. There is said to be a strong anti-boy bias in curricula, pedagogy, and testing, but I have no way of knowing whether this is true or not. Frank, Burlington
JUMP Math Versus Singapore Math
JUMP Math appears to have been created as a supplement to the terrible Ontario elementary math curriculum - to fill in the gaps that awful textbooks like Math Makes Sense create, as well as to strengthen those areas not developed to mastery. However, to be effective JUMP needs to be implemented by teachers who continually attend JUMP math workshops and instruction sessions. As well, the program requires more time than is available, and many students complete only about half of the course. For the record, I stand by Singapore Math as the best math program around. Maria, Milton
We're All in the Union Now
Am I the only one who is worried about the dominance of the teachers' unions in Ontario? Our former premier, after knuckling under to the teachers' unions for year, finally drew a line in the sand - whereupon the teachers' unions, at least according to them, got rid of him and got a better premier: one who immediately gave the teachers' unions more. Who's running our province? Alan, London
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When Dalton McGuinty became premier of Ontario in 2003, one of his main ambitions was to improve the academic performance of the province’s students. As a result, he was very proud and happy when the province’s testing body, the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) reported rising test scores year after year.
Let’s take the grade 9 math scores as an example. In 2003, 68% of academic students were found to be at or above the provincial standard. In 2012, 84% of academic students passed the test – an increase of 24 percentage points. And it was the same story for the province’s grade 9 applied students: 26% passed in 2003 and 44% passed in 2012 – an increase of 18 percentage points.
This is obviously an excellent rate of progress, something the premier could definitely be justified in bragging about.
However, there is a curious lack of congruence between the EQAO’s grade 9 math test results and international testing done on Ontario students during the same period.
The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies (TIMSS) tested Ontario grade 8 students, not grade 9 students, but it is nevertheless useful to compare the progress of grade 8 and grade 9 students since it is unlikely that the math ability of the province’s students would change dramatically in the course of one year.
During the same period (2003-2012) for which the EQAO reported amazing gains of 24 and 18 percentage points for the province’s grade 9 students, the TIMSS found a significant decline in the math ability of Ontario grade 8 students. This information can be found on the EQAO website.
In addition, the math ability of Ontario grade 10 students was tested by another international comparison of student achievement – the Progress in Student Achievement (PISA) assessments during roughly the same period. The PISA also found a slight decline in the math ability of the province’s students between 2003 and 2009. This information is also taken from the EQAO website.
On the one hand we have amazing gains for grade 9 students on the EQAO math tests. On the other hand we have significant declines for grade 8 students on the TIMSS and slight declines for grade 10 students on the PISA.
The TIMSS and PISA tests conform to the highest scholarly standards of reliability. If it comes down to a contest between the EQAO tests on one side and the TIMSS and PISA tests on the other, most objective observers would choose the TIMSS and PISA reporting.
Of course, those who choose to believe the TIMSS/PISA reporting are forced to conclude that the math ability of Ontario students is declining.
Although it is tempting to believe in the wonderful gains reported by the EQAO, it is very important that we not be lulled into a false sense of security by the EQAO reports.
Ontario students need strong math skills if they are to thrive in today’s high-tech society. Misleading feedback about their current levels of achievement is the very last thing they need.
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 Born to Rise: A story of children and teachers reaching their highest potential. Deborah Kenny
This is a very personal story written by a young mother of three small children seeking to make sense of her life amid the despair of her husband's untimely death. Deciding to devote herself to radically reinventing public education, Deborah Kenny began a journey that led her to risk her life savings to open charter schools in Harlem and proving in the process that all children, regardless of socio-economic circumstances, can learn at high levels. The book shares the ground-breaking strategy that took ten years to develop. The excerpt (pp 234-236) discusses the fundamental strength of Harlem Village Academies - its capable, talented, and supported teachers.
"During those same ten years the national conversation about education has permanently shifted. The days of blaming poverty, parents, or a particular curriculum are over. It is now widely understood that talented people - high quality teachers - matter more to a child's education than any other factor. And so, most everyone who cares about public education is now asking the same question: How do we give every child in our nation an excellent teacher? In other words: how do we attract and develop talent?
"Talented people drive results, innovate, and push past obstacles. And talented people, working together, can turn idealistic visions and even the most challenging goals into reality. This is what has happened at Harlem Village Academies. Our teachers light up with entrepreneurial drive, and they have produced stunning student achievement results."
Lost at School: Why our kids with behavioral challenges are falling through the cracks and how we can help them. Ross W. Greene
This book is designed for the parents and teachers of kids who are constantly getting into trouble at school. Most school discipline policies are predicated on the assumption that kids get into trouble because they don't want to be, or can't be bothered to be, well-behaved. As a result, most interventions are intended to change the child's motivations and make him or her want to be good. But this book is based on the assumption that kids will do well if they can, and that the reason kids are bad is that they lack the necessary skills to be good. The author proposes the use of a collaborative, problem-solving approach to identify and work on the lagging skills. The excerpt (pp. 7-8) elaborates on the difference between the two assumptions.
"The vast majority of challenging kids already know how we want them to behave. They know they're supposed to do what they're told. They know they're not supposed to disrupt the learning of their classmates or run out of the school when they're upset or embarrassed. And they know they're not supposed to hit people, swear, or call out in class. So they don't need us to put lots of effort into teaching them how we want them to behave. And while this may be hard to believe, most challenging kids already want to behave the right way. They don't need us to continue giving them stickers, depriving them of recess, or suspending them from school; they're already motivated. They need something else from us.
"The premise of this book is that kids with behavioral challenges lack important thinking skills, an idea supported by research in the neurosciences over the past thirty years on kids who are aggressive and have difficulty getting along with people and those diagnosed with ADHD, mood and anxiety disorders, oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, and language-processing disorders. The thinking skills involved aren't in the traditional academic domains - reading, writing, and arithmetic - but rather in domains such as regulating one's emotions, considering the outcomes of ones actions before one acts, understanding how one's behavior is affecting other people, having the words to let people know something's bothering you, and responding to changes in plan in a flexible manner."
 Mission Possible: How the secrets of the Success Academies can work in any school. Eva Moskowitz and Arin Lavinia
The Success Academies in Harlem have the goal of educating slum kids to a very high standard, and by all accounts they are doing this. The schools focus on their students' higher-order thinking skills, emphasizing the meaning of the text, aiming for deep understanding, encouraging meaningful debate, exchange of ideas, and so on. The schools are doing so much right: enriching their students' vocabularies and general knowledge; offering a rich and attractive environment, providing dedicated and caring teachers, focusing on hard work, making kids fall in love with books, that sort of thing. There is, however, almost no reference to how the children are taught to read in the first place, suggesting that beginning reading instruction is of minor importance, and this bias is reflected in the children's lack of reading fluency on the accompanying DVD. The excerpt (p 4) deals with the school's most important principle - namely, that the teachers (not the parents, not the children) are deemed to be responsible for the students' learning.
"First and foremost, we focus on the grown-ups, not the children. We believe the adults in the school - principals and teachers - hold the keys to educational excellence. If they step up their performance, and if they set the bar high enough and truly believe that the children can rise to their expectations, then they can propel these students forward with lightning speed.
"This is a radical, startling idea in the slow-to-change world of public education. But it is the touchstone of our beliefs, and we see it affirmed every day by the results in our joyful, rigorous classrooms."
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| And Now For Something Completely Different |
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Every English word is a time capsule of history, philosophy, and science, and http://etymonline.com, "a map of the wheel-ruts of modern English", is an excellent starting point for learning these stories. From here, you might spend a day with your child tracing the roots of a single word.
Look up 'Society' - the 'S' in SQE. It comes from the Old French société, which comes from the Latin socius (companion), a history that invites reflection on the Roman Empire, and then William the Conqueror and the events of 1066. Its original meaning of 'friendly association' changed in the 1630's to 'people living together in an ordered community' when it was adopted by the Quakers ('Religious Society of Friends') which summons a discussion of the English Civil War and early American history.
Follow the hotlink to 'Social' and perhaps discuss John Locke's definition of society as 'a natural condition of human life', or Rousseau's 'Social Contract', or 'Social Darwinism'. Explain what the discipline of Sociology explores, or what 'Social Networking' is about.
Enter the Latin root 'socius' as your search term, and discover other words descended from it - society, associate, dissociate; with a bit of thought you might add socialite, sociopath, and socialism. Each conjures an event or cultural - dare I say it? - association. If nothing else, you are less likely to misspell these words once you see how they are related. There are also false leads - the origin of 'masochist' shows it is NOT related, however tempting to imagine such a link. (Contributed by Tom Berend)
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