By Parry Sound-Muskoka MPP Graydon Smith
I hear from parents often about how their children are struggling to master the basics of math and literacy. As a parent myself, I’ve seen firsthand how Ontario’s curriculum gradually drifted away from focusing on the fundamentals of reading, writing and math. Our teachers are doing everything they can to ensure their students develop fundamental skills, but if the focus of the curriculum or even the local school board lies somewhere else, it can be a very difficult goal to accomplish.
While approaches to education are complex and certainly best left to the experts, parents and teachers from across Parry Sound-Muskoka, and Ontario, have rightfully identified the need for governments to refocus their efforts on ensuring students understand the basics.
Data from the EQAO (Education Quality & Accountability Office) supports what moms and dads know: the status quo is not working. Provincewide, test scores indicate a need for a new approach.
This is why the provincial government has redoubled its efforts to ensure our students master the basics of reading, writing and math. In 2019, our government announced a 4-year, $200M math strategy. This plan provided more funding to school boards to hire math leads, invest in math training and coaching, expand online tutoring and deliver summer learning programs. On April 16, we announced another $180M to boost literacy and math skills training across Ontario.
These new funds will go towards supporting over 380 specialized math educators, double the number of school math coaches, introduce one math lead per board, expand teacher-led virtual math tutoring and cover the cost of providing teachers with professional development to upskill in math fluency and competency.
We are also investing $109M in 2023-24 to boost literacy rates. This is the largest investment in Canada dedicated to supporting literacy development. It includes the largest reading-screening initiative in the country, which will assess students, in SK to grade 2, to identify challenges early.
We are also investing in intervention for kids that screening identifies by supporting nearly 700 educators to focus on literacy.
I’m extremely proud of our government’s focus on identifying kids in need of additional support at a young age. Early intervention is critical in addressing any challenges a child may face when learning. I’m thrilled to know that moving forward, more kids who need help will receive it early and consistently throughout their elementary school years.
This targeted funding is a major step forward in making sure our kids get what they need in math and literacy. We all know that achieving sustainable success requires a change in the system.
This is why our government has taken action to address the feedback we’ve heard directly from parents regarding local school boards. Many parents feel left out of their child’s education, and as if their voices are being ignored. We’ve heard concerns about a lack of transparency and accountability in setting academic priorities and making key decisions, such as funding for new schools.
I also want to mention the discrepancies across Ontario’s 72 school boards. Each board sets its own priorities, creating inconsistent student outcomes across the system. For example, some school boards underperform academically without a clear plan to improve, there are long delays in building new schools and long certification processes for educators.
The Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act, if passed, will set standards and expectations for every school board. It will provide consistent approaches to student learning and well-being, including mental health, and put in place a clear process for building and renovating schools faster. Our government wants to ensure every school board is focused on what matters most: developing lifelong skills in math, reading and writing. We must refocus the system.
There’s no one size fits all solution here. But, I’m confident these changes will result in better math and literacy outcomes for my kids and for kids across Parry Sound-Muskoka.
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If only it was that simple. However, the person at the head of the classroom makes the difference – not the system.
Early foundation skills in reading and math are essential. The problem lies with decision makers and educators not having the scientific knowledge and understanding of how the brain learns to read and what foundational skills are needed. Further physiological development in young children takes a path that the Ontario curriculum totally ignores. Growth and learning are complex; not as simple as one treats it. Instructional methods need to be reliable, backed by science and real research and evidence based. So putting money into “380 specialized math educators, double the number of school math coaches, introduce one math lead per board” won’t do anything unless these people are educated in research and evidenced based instructional methods. This is true for reading instruction and math instruction. Schools in many boards don’t even have a systematic, consistent math program with consumable workbooks for each grade (elementary years 1-6) that teach and follow a progression of learning. How can one expect children to learn math concepts and to build on them when teachers do not have an instructional program and when they are individually required to build their own programs. Each teacher cannot but help attach their own priorities while emphasizing their own ways of teaching. A lot of missed learning of key concepts is at play. This is through no fault of teachers. The system is broken! Put the talk into requiring University programs to have courses in cognitive science with a focus on the science of reading and how to teach reading, in mathematics, communications skills and the psychology of learning all of which are critical to teaching today. And don’t forget courses in child development as they apply to developing appropriate curriculum and applying instructional methods. Ensure that curriculum is really necessary especially in the beginning elementary years – get rid of the ‘everything including the kitchen sink’ syndrome – cognitive overload decreases learning; waiting for brain maturity creates more efficient learning! Make Boards accountable by having to purchase research backed, evidence-based and professionally written math programs and reading programs (UFLI is an excellent example of a researched and evidenced based reading program) as opposed to ignorant educators developing their own resources that have no evidence in promoting learning. Provide the resources so teachers aren’t making every single lesson from scratch. Cheaper, yes, systematic and reliable, no! Money needs to be spent where it will do its job at a deeper level! Learning is not nearly as simple as it is made out to be!
The problem is that only the students are tested never the system. It is good that is being addressed , but hopefully not before the proposed solution has been tested . If the metrics are simply more student testing, all that money will be wasted. Centralizing the system is not the answer without top professional management. Just look at the Toronto board. Management plays no part of our schooling system. No testable goals and no metrics. Licensed to Learn has proven nationally to successfully address this but the ministry won’t support it. The real problem will be keeping the teachers in the unstable and unsupportive system.
There is a long way to go and money won’t fix it. But good to have this on the table.
As a Reading Recovery teacher for six years, and a grade one and grade two teacher, I agree that early intervention is critical.
Addressing children’s mental health is also just as important.
Graydon, a good first step. As you say, there is ‘no one size fits all’ solution to educational concerns. The next step should be to make independent schools more accessible to students from lower income families through refundable tax credits for tuition costs or by other types of support. All students do not learn the same way and not all parents are comfortable with the environment in their assigned school. This could be in place before September.
Well done, Graydon! This has been a long time coming. It’s so important to reinforce these skills at an early age.