Niagara Region’s public and Catholic school boards recently got a rare, positive shout-out from Ontario’s Education Minister Paul Calandra.
Calandra singled them out because their students’ performance test results led the province in the latest round of standardized testing.
The tests, conducted by the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO), are an annual assessment of how students are doing in Grades 3 and 6 reading, writing and math and Grade 9 math. Grade 10 students must pass a literacy test to graduate.
“Niagara Catholic and public are doing very, very well,” he was quoted as saying. “They are leaders across the province, frankly, in practically all categories, with the same level of funding (as other boards).”
The Niagara boards prove a point Calandra has been trying to make. It is not all about funding. Of course, there are funding issues with the educational system, despite significant increases, as there always are and will continue to be. Name me an educational director who ever said to a minister of education, thank you, we have enough money.
But what the test results show is that how a school board chooses to use that money, whether they focus it on improved student learning or other priorities, makes a big difference in how well those students can learn.
While there were pockets of good news in the provincial results – 86 percent of Grade 6 students met the provincial standard in reading and 85 percent in writing – just 51 percent met the math standard. And overall gains were less than impressive with considerable discrepancy in results across the province.
As the Niagara boards prove, the key issue is not funding. It is what the board does with it that can make the difference.
Seventy-nine percent of their Grade 3 students met the provincial math standard, compared to the provincial average of 64 percent. Among Grade 6 students, 71 percent met the standard compared with the provincial average of 51 percent. Only 66 percent of Grade 9 students met the math standard but that result was 15 percent better than last year’s scores.
“There is no secret sauce here,” said Nidhi Sachdeva, a researcher and lecturer at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Strategies that include step-by-step instruction, more in-depth professional development for teachers, early identification of struggling students and setting the right culture that expects learning, are part of what can make a difference.
The District School Board of Niagara identified math as a priority several years ago and upped their game by improving professional development for their teachers, offering them a university-level math course which the board paid for.
Their education director, Kelly Pisek said that a half-day workshop “just isn’t enough.” Other strategies include conducting a mid-year assessment of student progress, much like the annual EQAO tests, which gives teachers better information on how students are progressing and allows earlier intervention.
Teachers’ unions love to criticize the tests as somehow politically motivated and a waste of time and money. But this past year’s results make the case for why they are so important.
They are not designed to measure the performance of individual students, although the results can be used by teachers for that purpose. They are designed to measure the educational system, to see how individual schools and boards are doing and to identify problems so they can be fixed.
Which is precisely the approach Calandra appears to be taking. There was quite the hullabaloo at the end of last year when he delayed releasing the test results. Teachers’ union leaders used the delay to again call for the end of the tests and to criticize Calandra for “political interference.”
But Calandra was clear that he wanted an opportunity to do a deep dive into the results, to identify problems and to determine what needs to change to help increase student performance.
When he eventually released the results at the end of the year, he also announced that he is appointing an advisory board to examine how Ontario supports student learning, particularly in math, reading and writing.
Among other factors, the review will look at why results have not been improving as needed, whether the curriculum is appropriate, how well teachers are being prepared and supported to teach it as well as whether the tests are accurately aligned with what is being taught.
Calandra has not been shy about pushing for structural changes in how boards conduct their business. He has already taken over several and clashed with others over poor governance practices, financial mismanagement and school board trustee infighting. His public comments make clear that major change is coming.
It now looks like major changes to improve student performance are also on the to do list.
Janet Ecker is a former Ontario Finance Minister, Minister of Education, Minister of Community and Social Services and Government House Leader in the governments of Premier Mike Harris and Premier Ernie Eves. After her political career, she served as the founding CEO of the Toronto Financial Services Alliance, a public-private partnership dedicated to building Toronto region into an international financial centre. She currently sits on a number of corporate and non-profit boards, agencies and advisory committees.
Ms. Ecker received the Order of Canada for her public service contributions and was recognized as one of the “Most Influential People in the World’s Financial Centres” by Financial Centres International. She also received a “Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award” from the Women’s Executive Network and the Richard Ivey School of Business, among other awards. She is also one of the founders of Equal Voice, a national, multi-partisan organization working to elect more women.
