Canada has an “enormous vacuum” at the centre of its national education leadership and needs to set national goals for the system, Dr. Paul Cappon declared on October 10, 2011, while releasing his Final Report on behalf of the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL). That was also the key recommendation in the report entitled What is the Future of Learning in Canada? and delivered as parting advice before the CCL wraps up its operations when federal funding disappears at the end of March 2012. http://www.ccl-cca.ca/CCL/Home/index.html
“One of our problems in Canada, of course, is that we have very little information nationally about how we’re doing,” said Cappon, Canada’s leading authority on international educational standards. “For example, we don’t even know how many graduates we have in any particular year in any particular area, whether it’s fisheries or forestry or carpentry, so we can’t match labour market demand to labour market supply. Those kinds of national reporting systems of data are very important for a country to be able to decide where to put its resources and to be able to move forward.” http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/breakingnews/create-new-body-to-ensure-canada-meets-learning-goals-report-urges-131495398.html
Cappon makes a compelling case that Canada needs a new federal, intergovernmental agency to oversee the Canadian educational system. He told the Canadian Press that the current Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, of which he was CEO for eight years, is ineffective as a co-ordinating body because everything is done on a consensus basis and it refuses to co-operate with the federal government on education matters.
The final report of CCL recommends that there be something else as well, namely a national Council of Ministers on Learning. The federal-provincial body could provide national leadership in learning, similar to what is done by a ministerial council in Australia, or the Directorate-General for Education and Culture of the European Union. Cappon said a Canadian version would see the provinces, territories and federal government work together to set and meet goals, and report transparently to the Canadian public. In the European model, he said member states have an open method of co-ordination to try to converge their policies and priorities in education, even though they’re all sovereign in education, like Canadian provinces.
What stands in the way of establishing a stronger national presence? “Territoriality” was the word Cappon used to describe the greatest inhibiting factor. It would, he told Canadian Press, take “tremendous public pressure to move in this direction,” although he saw some political will for such a model among small provinces and French language minorities.
Cappon and the Canadian Council on Learning also announced a final cross-Canada speaking tour to promote the report’s recommendations. “What I’m hoping,” he said in Ottawa, “is that when people realize that Canada is slipping down the international learning curve we’re not going to be able to compete in the future unless we get our act together.”
The final CCL National Report Card makes reference to the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Scores reveal that Canadian 15-year-olds have relatively strong sets of skills in reading, math and science, but they’ve been slipping relative to other countries and in some cases in absolute terms.
The bright spots for Canadian education, recognized in the CCL report, are in early elementary education, where preschoolers enjoy free play, and are introduced early to reading. The Canadian K-12 system is also still recognized as among the most inclusive and democratic in the world.At the post-secondary level, Canadians can rest assured that there is high participation, a high rate of graduation and a high proportion of immigrants are being university educated.
Having recognized the Canadian system’s strengths, the CCL report doesn’t mince any words when it comes to identifying problem areas. A number of other troubling trends are highlighted in the council’s report, which noted that about one-quarter of kids enter school without being ready, either because of behavioural or learning problems. In addition, Cappon told Canadian Press that boys are now lagging in education and slipping markedly compared with girls from kindergarten to Grade 12. He also re-stated his long-standing concerns about adult illiteracy, as well as the paltry state of private sector funding for post-secondary level research in Canada.
The impending closing of the Canadian Council on Learning will be a sad day for all who believe in raising educational standards and ensuring that the current generation is properly prepared for future success. Dr. Cappon’s final Report Card does offer a rather gloomy prognosis. And, reading between the lines, The Globe and Mail’s Education Reporter Kate Hammer shares my concerns over the CCL’s demise.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/canadian-education-awaits-a-hard-lesson-watchdog-warns/article2197017/
It’s time to step back and look at the big picture: What is the actual state of learning in Canada? How accurate is Dr. Cappon’s final report in diagnosing the situation, particularly in K-12 education? If the CCL is correct, what hard lessons lie ahead for Canada and Canadians?
To have national oversight for post-secondary institutions, as the CCL recommends, there should be a means to measure readiness for post secondary. The CCL does not recommend university entrance or high school leaving exams so how will post-secondary institutions be able to fairly assess incoming students?
Additionally, it would be worthwhile looking at inequities in how K-12 education is funded across the country. There are striking differences with western provinces and Quebec partially funding private schooling (and homeschooling to a certain extent), but Ontario, and the Atlantic provinces in particular, not getting anything. It is not lost on us at SQE that acheivement varies accordingly.
I think it’s important that we look at what our goals are for education. If we think that education is about filling a future need in manufacturing, or college readiness (which fills a need for future scientists and academics), then our purposes of education seem to be very undemocratic to me. Should we be preparing students to be citizens in a democracy, or should we fall prey to the neo-liberal attitude which suggests that our children are just more grist for the mill of capitalism?
One of the disadvantages of the current US system, with its current Federal oversight (meddling?), is that each state is forced into using very similar education systems, and the ability to innovate within those systems is limited. Assessment models drive many school cultures, and if you restrict the types of assessment of student learning which can be used, you necessarily restrict what types of schools are possible.
Education is like a 3 legged stool that must have 3 legs of equal length to work properly. The 3 legs have often been summarized as;
1) Vocationalism and the development of human capital. (science, math technology, apprenticeships, …..)
2) Human individual growth and happiness (poetry, languages, health, the arts…)
3) Citizenship and equity, growth and deepening of democracy and citizenship, equality of opportunity eventually leading to greater but not absolute equality of result. (history, citizenship, English diversity, critical thinking…)
Education must walk and chew gum at the same time. It must do all of these things. When it become too weighted towards one the other 2 rebel.
The 3 main universities in BC (UBC, SFU and U Vic) told the government they were not interested in looking at standardized test results for admission because they are unreliable and too narrow. They find the teachers’ grades far more accurate and reliable.
There is no relationship between funding private education and educational success. There is a profound difference between success and the level of child poverty. Alberta was a national leader long before charters. The reason was OIL.
The problem with “let 100 flowers bloom” is that 40-50 of the flowers will die but the jurisdiction will not learn from the others.
I would prefer total national control of education but that toothpaste is out of the tube.
Pretty hard to tell what the state of learning is in any country, much less from one school district to the next. Hard, because of the topped down education models, starting with the global organizations, such as the Directorate-General for Education and Culture of the European Union. Marching to the same tune of globalization goals; “Education and training are at the heart of the Commission’s ‘Europe 2020’ strategy for a competitive, green and sustainable economy. My priorities follow the Commission’s broad policy guidelines for the next 5 years:
•improving skills and access to education and training, focusing on market needs
•increasing learning mobility and opportunities for young people
•nurturing cultural expression and creativity for all.”
http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/vassiliou/about/priorities/index_en.htm
An example is dealing with youth: “Policy makers, researchers, youth organisations and other NGOs, and experts working in the youth field, both from the EU and Canada, gathered in Helsinki for a two day intense and fruitful meeting. Key note speeches and panel discussions included topics such as Canadian programmes promoting youth active citizenship, youth participation in the EU from policy and youth perspective, Structured Dialogue, Youth action strategy in Quebec, European Youth Portal, Youth Card in Scotland, Youth-led strategies for effective civic engagement in Canada and other topics. Working groups on connecting with youth, promoting and motivating youth participation offered an excellent occasion to discuss various examples and experiences coming from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The Round Table was also a unique occasion for networking and establishing further cooperation.” http://ec.europa.eu/youth/news/20111007-eu-canada_en.htm
Not much difference in the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, as to their goals and conferences. “Ministers of education work through CMEC on a wide variety of activities, projects, and initiatives. For example, CMEC
•represents provinces and territories on education-related international bodies and participates in their activities
•contributes to the fulfilment of Canada’s international treaty obligations
•provides a national clearing house and referral service to support the recognition and portability of educational and occupational qualifications
•assesses the skills and competencies of Canadian students
•develops and reports on education indicators
•sponsors research in education-related statistics
•administers Canada’s national official-languages programs
•consults and acts on a variety of issues in elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education”
http://www.cmec.ca/About/Pages/default.aspx
And than there is the CMEC Secretariat “was created the same year as the Council itself to support the work of the intergovernmental body. Located in Toronto, the Secretariat is headed by a Director General, who is appointed by members of CMEC. Dr. Andrew Parkin is the current Director General.
Services provided to ministers by the Secretariat include
•coordination of meetings of ministers, deputy ministers, and provincial/territorial officials
•coordination and administration of all aspects of CMEC activities, projects, and initiatives
•policy research and support, as directed by ministers
•hosting of provincial/territorial electronic discussion forums
•hosting and maintenance of CMEC Web sites
•translation and revision of over a million words of text each year
•English and French simultaneous interpretation at meetings and events
•liaison with various stakeholders including education-related NGOs and the general public
•media and public relations “
Other organizations in Canada, that are either lateral, or one level below, more or less have the same goals and aims, of the global organizations in education are:
1. Association of Canadian Deans of Education
Click to access 4.1_Assoc_CdnDeans_of_Education.pdf
2. The Council of The Federation
http://www.councilofthefederation.ca/aboutcouncil/aboutcouncil.htm
3. The Canadian Teachers’ Federation
http://www.ctf-fce.ca/AboutUS/Default.aspx?lang=EN
4. The Canadian Association of Principals
http://cdnprincipals.org/?page_id=74
My question is, why add another intergovernmental council, where there is already 5 operating on the national and international spheres? Another question, why was The Council For Learning dumped in the first place, and was Cappon sent there to shut it down? Or was it shut down, because the Council For Learning, was not following the goals of the global education organizations? As Cappon stated, “Cappon said the current Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, of which he was CEO for eight years, is ineffective as a co-ordinating body because everything is done on a consensus basis and it refuses to co-operate with the federal government on education matters.”
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/breakingnews/create-new-body-to-ensure-canada-meets-learning-goals-report-urges-131495398.html
However by copying the European one as Cappon has suggested, it is another organization like all other national and international organizations, works on consensus. And does not necessarily follow the goals of the European Union. So why add another one, to send more of the educrats off to conferences snacking on wine and cheese?
Wonder why CCL was defunded?
Now you know. The pols don’t wanna hear it, especially when they’re the ones being held to account.
Harper is a fairly strict constitutionalist on Sec 91 92 of old BNA Act. Education is provincial. The very last the Alberta types want is to be told how to run their schools by Ottawa or by Ontario-Quebec.
one of the problems in Canada, of course, is that we have very little information nationally about how we’re doing…
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One thing I have noticed so far is that information in the field of public education is treated as though it were a finite substance.
Fiddlesticks, Doug. My post clearly demonstrates the federal involvement within education, and the connections between the various associations and organizations. Andrew, is probably more right, that CCL was eliminated because of the politics, but in my opinion, it was eliminated because the education organizations wanted it gone. Gone, because it clearly broke down numbers that they did not want the public to know, or any other politician.
Current federal government is very strong on education, and just watch them move on it, in the next few years or so. Perhaps, it might be the threat of a strike, in Ontario. After all, they are coming up with some pretty creative solutions to get Air Canada employees back to work, within the laws.
All the organizations that I posted, are located in Ottawa, very close to lobby politicians, and putting in their two cents. I can’t see that there should be another group added to it, because in the end, the taxpayers end up funding it.
“It should be noted that most of the activities (except for those to be funded exclusively by the federal government, such as those that affect the capacity of CIC’s International Student Program) could be funded through the “pooling” of provincial-territorial resources, either through funding of an existing instrument such as CMEC, through co-funding agreements directly with DFAIT, or through the funding of another agency or subcontractor. This cost-sharing of common activities across jurisdictions could create significant efficiencies and added value-for-money. Certain activities, such as the funding of more Canadian students to study abroad, are likely best to be funded separately by each jurisdiction. In all cases, decisions regarding provincial/territorial involvement will be made on a case-by-case basis to determine when collective or individual action is most appropriate in respect of the priorities of provinces and territories.”
Click to access COF_Bringing_Ed_to_Canada_Eng_final.pdf
Goes on to recommend: “Ministers responsible for education and provincial and territorial ministers of immigration recommend that:
• Premiers accept the actions, areas for investment, and opportunities for
federal-provincial collaboration proposed above as the basis of a pan-
Canadian international education marketing action plan;
• ministers responsible for education and provincial and territorial ministers
of immigration, to the fullest extent possible within the context of existing
resources, begin work immediately to implement the plan;
• ministers responsible for education and provincial and territorial ministers
of immigration pursue discussion with federal ministers of international
trade and immigration will a view of aligning federal initiatives relating
to international students with the priorities outlined in this action plan”
Another example even further up – global wide
Click to access ewf-london-report-jan-2011-en.pdf
In the CCL report: “Leadership from provinces and territories and the CMEC
participate in many international educational meetings and conferences. The ostensible purpose of such gatherings is to learn from the examples of other countries, both their successes and their failures. In the unique case of Canada, the centrifugal forces that fragment educational efforts are so strong that they render meaningless the lessons to be derived from other countries’ successful innovations. There is simply no locus of coordinated co-operation in Canada that can act nationally on lessons learned from abroad.”
Click to access 2010-10-11WhatistheFutureofLearninginCanada.pdf
Also in the report: “Thus, for example, the federal (central) government played a powerful role in PSE in the decades following WW2: in direct funding of universities; in the context of national policy development; in the creation of many new PSE seats to accommodate the post-war boom; in fostering research; and, in the 1960s, in the development of the “community college” sector. It invested massively in technical and related forms of training, in programs in continuing education, and
in courses equivalent to initial university education. Over the last few decades, as Canada’s economic, institutional and political structures have become more fragmented, constitutional provisions have been re-interpreted as excluding a significant policy or strategic role for the federal government. Thus, for example, there is no coordination between levels of government in PSE, except, within limitations, with regard to student financial assistance, Aboriginal education and research funding. Federal representatives at political and bureaucratic levels are systematically excluded from regular meetings of the Council of Ministers of Education of Canada.”
Below, same link as above – at the end of the report, CCL makes its case for a new body. Perhaps a few of the organizations should be kick aside, or ordered to cooperate.
“Restoring a national learning agenda without CCL implies recreating somehow: the ability to engender a national learning vision, framework and platform; the capacity to monitor and report transparently and publicly on Canadian learning outcomes at all stages of life; the setting of long- and short-term learning goals for Canada; the encouragement and dissemination of applied research on learning issues fundamental to all Canadians; the coherent linking of government and non-government contributors in support of recognized learning objectives; and the provision to Canadians of tools that can facilitate their learning. “
You have done a masterful job, Nancy, of demonstrating that Canadian education is infested with coordinating groups.
I must say, however, that Dr. Paul Cappon is one of the few individuals capable of cutting through that apparatus. After Dr. Joe Freedman succeeded in initiating the landmark 1991 Alberta study, International Comparisons in Education, it was Cappon who led Canada into National Student Achievement Indicators project and then into the OECD program of international testing. It was a lonely struggle, but he was a constant throughout that whole process.
The demise of CCL threatens to undermine the whole national standards movement simply because Cappon eventually became the closest we had to a national educational watchdog. While he is not without his critics, Cappon has served us well. What Canada needs now is a more entrenched national educational standards office, structured in a way that respects the provincial prerogatives in education.
Somehow we have to find a way to establish national educational goals and to keep all those alphabet soup agencies/organizations honest. CMEC is little more than a loose coordinating group for the Ministers of Education. That’s why I support the key CCL recommendation.
“Current federal government is very strong on education, and just watch them move on it, in the next few years or so.”
Really?
The Harper government has been in power for what, 5-6 years?
What have they achieved in the area of public education?
Here’s a Harper government achievement.
http://jdeq.typepad.com/jerrys_thoughts_musings_a/2011/02/the-stephen-harper-government-attacks-public-education-and-international-volunteer-work.html
Nancy K-12 education is totally beyond the reach of the national government. Post secondary is a place where they have a small role primarily in funding and scholarships.
Harper is one of the strictest constitutionalists we have ha in many years. Nothing really wrong with that. He cannot involve himself in labour issues unless it is federal gov’t employees of federally regulated business (banks airlines communications…).
He has no role in labour issues K-12 or post secondary either.
The reason CCL is being dismantled is a Tory gov’t. It is a Liberal creation to have a window on education.
The federal government has always been involved in education, and the CCL reports it with the details. The federal government, especially the current economic situation, as well as other countries, have increased their expenditures towards adult education and more importantly the remediation of low literacy and numeracy skills of the population. Also Cappon outlined the refusal of the provincial and national organizations, of the exclusion of the federal government at many levels, even though funding and other areas such as immigration are derived from federal dollars, and not provincial monies.
Now as for the Harper government, which I am no fan of, does have serious interests in education, and have noted the declined in the quality of education. But their concerns rests at the upper levels, where an educated work force, is the result of the provincial education systems. Where the Harper government parts with the provincial counterparts, is that the provincial governments are not living up to their part, nor living up to the constitution. Furthermore, the feds only know too well the provincial education systems, and the sorry state of education concerning the aboriginals on reservations and off reservations. Another area, is hiring of teachers from the provincial pools, to address the low literacy and numeracy skills in the prisons across the country. Another area, and it is a big one, is the funding of colleges and other like adult facilities to addressed the upgrading in literacy and numeracy, as well as the retraining for the unemployed. If it was left up to the provincial governments, the education budgets would be twice as large, since the provincial governments do not practice prevention of the 3 Rs. This job has fallen largely on the federal’s shoulders to take care of. Now that Harper has a majority, it will be changing to where the federal government will have greater say over the provinces regarding education policies. And they are none too please about the low literacy and numeracy rates nor the bullying policies. Politics enters the picture, cutting here and there concerning education, and create the crisis for the federal government to come in.
Just think about it Doug, the Harper government and how they play the game of politics, setting up the conditions to force change and reform? As for the federal’s involvement, and how much the MPs actually care about the low literacy rates in Canada, and understand it much better than any provincial representative, is just one of the many on record in the House of Commons. Debates of March 7th, 2011
http://openparliament.ca/hansards/2359/?singlepage=1
The Final Report of the Council on Canadian Learning is attracting some public debate.
Tonight Doretta Wilson of the Society for Quality Education will be on The Arena with Michael Coren on SUN TV at 7 pm ET. Worth tuning in for that discussion.
The Post Media story on the Final Report puts a slightly different spin on the CCL’s assessment of the state of Canadian education:
http://www.canada.com/news/Report+gives+failing+grades+Canada+education+system/5530990/story.html
Before jumping to conclusions, I invite you to read the whole report and to consider Kate Hammer’s earlier piece which (in my estimation) provides a much more nuanced appraisal of the report.
The demise of CCL does indeed threatens to undermine the national standards, but my disagreement lies within the direction and whose direction. CCL is the closest, to produced stats and relevant information on the state of education and learning in Canada, that not only informs citizens as well as the policies of education, but essentially gives the framework for made in Canada approach. What I do object to, is the top organizations within a country, and global wide are more or less following the global goals of organizations such as OECD, UNESCO, World Bank and other such world organizations, that are actually shaping education policies to follow their goals, which the national education organizations of the individual countries and the education systems, are adapting their policies to reflect the over arching goals of the OECD and other such world organizations.
CCL is rare among the countries, producing the connections and data necessary to shape education policy of the provinces, the weaknesses and strengths, that more or less follows the global educational goals connected to the economy, health, and other such indicators. What I object to, is the shaping of national education policies to another set of goals, composed of individuals, whose main purpose is to harmonized and create standard education policy across the globe, that all work to benefit the globalization forces of the world. What lies behind it, is profit and creating economic opportunities within the education systems of the world, by setting up the conditions. Rather ironic, the global forces have been working for the pass 20 years or so, promoted mobility of labor force, of students, and other related areas, tuition fees have soared in the last 20 years, to where Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia is at the top for the higher tuition fees for post-secondary. Not only in Canada, but as well world-wide, which has effectively played havoc with the global goals of mobility of students and workforce
“The strategy identifies five headline targets the European Union should take to boost growth and employment. These are:
To reduce the share of early school leavers to 10% from the current 15% and increase the share of the population aged 30–34 having completed tertiary education from 31% to at least 40%.
To raise the employment rate of the population aged 20–64 from the current 69% to at least 75%.
To achieve the target of investing 3% of GDP in R&D in particular by improving the conditions for R&D investment by the private sector, and develop a new indicator to track innovation.
To reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20% compared to 1990 levels or by 30% if the conditions are right, increase the share of renewable energy in final energy consumption to 20%, and achieve a 20% increase in energy efficiency.
To reduce the number of Europeans living below national poverty lines by 25%, lifting 20 million people out of poverty.”
http://www.nauka.gov.pl/ministry/cooperation-between-poland-and-eu/eu-initiatives-in-the-field-of-higher-education/europe-2020-strategy/
CCL had data, that tells the story of Canada, that is not being discussed or outright being dismissed, by the other top education organizations, such as the Council of the Education Ministries, and they are more or less shaping policies around the global goals. And in particular the European goals.
“Least 95% of children between 4 years old and the age for starting compulsory primary education should participate in early-childhood education.
• The share of early leavers from education and training should be less than 10%.
• The share of low-achieving 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics and science should be less than 15%.
• The share of 30- to 34-year-olds with tertiary educational attainment should be at least 40%.
• An average of at least 15% of adults should participate in lifelong learning. “
Click to access 2010-10-11WhatistheFutureofLearninginCanada.pdf
What the top education organizations, national or global share, is a voluntary cooperative approach, where the nuts and bolts are left up to the individual countries, that more or less are following part of or all of the global goals within the education context. I have observed, and noted, as well as the stats reflects it as well, is the developed countries, sees low-literacy and numeracy as not being a problem in reaching their goals, as well as advancing the global agenda. How can any country advance their education goals, without effectively dealing with the low literacy and numeracy rates of their adult population, as well as with their student population? In the CCL report, literacy is highlighted, but according to the report, it is not the fault of the K to 12 education system, but the lack of opportunities and access to community and adult learning. “ Canadian skills, such as literacy and numeracy, decline more quickly in Canada, after completion of formal study, than in some other OECD countries. Yet, results of international standardized testing (PISA) show that Canadian K–12 education is not the cause; it is superior to many. CCL’s work has identified three major root sources for Canadian under-performance in adult learning: insufficient preparation for lifelong learning in early childhood (see the section on ECEL), poor provision of workplace-related learning opportunities by employers, which is normally a major source of adult learning, and inadequate opportunity for community-based learning. “
As in other reports from developed countries, and Europe, the low literacy rates are glossed over, it is not the fault of the education K to 12 systems, but the lack of early childhood education, as well as insufficient preparation for lifelong learning in early childhood, and access to adult education and opportunities in the workplaces. I had no idea how the global concerns, including Cappon can actually state with a straight face, that literacy skills declines after completion of K to 12, and therefore it is the reason why the adult population have a growing rate of low-literacy and numeracy in the adult population.
The global goals, run countered to the needs of the national goals of a country where literacy and numeracy is placed within the knowledge networks, rather than placing literacy and numeracy as essential and basic skills needed to access the knowledge networks. Rather ironic, when many of the European youth protesting, a fair number share a complaint, that the education system of K to 12, did not provide them with a solid foundation in numeracy and literacy, and as a result, had to exit post-secondary to upgrade their skills in numeracy and literacy., in order to re-enter post-secondary, or training at the work place to either keep their job, or to get a job at the end of the day. An industry in education, worth billions of dollars world-wide, has been developed and growing each year, is the remediation of literacy and numeracy..Could it be, the nations’ education systems, are more intent in creating economic opportunities for those within and outside of the education field, rather than the more noble goal, of increasing education attainment and practicing prevention, rather than remediation in the future?
It all boils down to one very simple thing.
After having completed the K-12 system, how well prepared is our youth for the next step in their lives?
The answer is that they aren’t.
Nancy, go look at the Constitution.
On page 4 of the CCL report, “We are not in practice reflecting Mr. Johnston’s shining vision of “building a smarter nation”. In many domains of learning across the life cycle, we are falling behind competitor countries, both in established and emerging economies. In some fields in which we began with a head start, we have lost the initiative and the lead. Canada is slipping down the international learning curve.”
In reference to the Governor’s General’s first speech.
On page 7, “The criticisms levelled then by the OECD are equally valid a
decade later. OECD pointed out that Canadian adults were foregoing learning opportunities because of lack of cohesion and planning between federal and provincial governments and between the public and the private sector. That Canada has not acted on any of the OECD’s still pertinent and valid recommendations is unsurprising: there is no locus of policy and implementation in Canada mandated and empowered to do so.
The last word
Canada is slipping down the international learning curve.”
On page 13, “The absence of common, or shared learning outcomes among Canadian provinces and territories is the most important weakness of K–12 education in Canada—and is the single most-important reason for which our international standardized test scores will continue their decline relative
to other OECD countries.”
On page 16, “Within the education sector—particularly within PSE—
interpretation of Canada’s original constitutional arrangements from 1867 (British North America Act, BNA) have varied according to the ideologies and prevalent attitudes and context of each period. It is not the case that the initial wording of the BNA provides indisputable constitutional direction to a 21st Century Canada. This is especially true of public PSE, which was simply neither mentioned, nor even contemplated in the BNA. Thus, for example, the federal (central) government played a powerful role in PSE in the decades following WW2: in direct funding of universities; in the context of national policy development; in the creation of many new PSE seats
to accommodate the post-war boom; in fostering research; and, in the 1960s, in the development of the “community college” sector. It invested massively in technical and related forms of training, in programs in continuing education, and in courses equivalent to initial university education.”
On page 16, “Over the last few decades, as Canada’s economic, institutional and political structures have become more fragmented, constitutional provisions have been reinterpreted as excluding a significant policy or strategic role for the federal government. Thus, for example, there
is no coordination between levels of government in PSE, except, within limitations, with regard to student financial assistance, Aboriginal education and research funding. Federal representatives at political and bureaucratic levels are systematically excluded from regular meetings of the Council of Ministers of Education of Canada.”
More importantly, still on page 16, “Lacking a genuine collective governmental partner in the provinces, the federal government tends to invest resources in those very-limited areas of PSE for which it may. In particular, its recent massive investments in university research, while needed and welcome are more an artefact of federal–provincial discontinuity than a matter of lucid national policy. These investments, because they are unaccompanied by allocation of resources in those areas off limits for the federal government—teaching and learning—have skewed the work of institutions away from
teaching functions, and toward a greater concentration on research profiles of faculty and institutions.
On page 46, “4. Canadian federal–provincial relations in education and learning are profoundly dysfunctional. While this fact is sometimes complacently disguised in public discourse as a virtue, it is an enormous handicap to the learning futures of all Canadian communities and regions.
5) The BNA, Canada’s basic constitutional arrangement, does not preclude intense federal involvement in matters of education and learning.
6) No constitutional change in matters relating to education and learning are necessary to the establishment of the national frameworks essential for the attainment of Canadian goals throughout the learning cycle.
7) The establishment and achievement of Canadian learning objectives at all stages requires intense, continuous and targeted collaboration between federal and provincial levels. Models for such cohesive action, while always imperfect, can be observed in many lands—from Australia to India, South Africa and the EU.
Leadership in such a pragmatic structure does not inherently belong to any level of government. Just as the responsibility for learning does not reside in a particular territory. It is shared among governments, individuals, families and communities. This fact must translate into a dynamic and flexible intergovernmental relationship.
8) National learning policies and strategies are not successfully developed by governments in isolation. Intergovernmental bodies must find appropriate and continuing mechanisms for intense involvement of groups representing learners, educational and economic interests and institutions and NGOs. “
Doug, Cappon is not the first one to make the case, and the federal government is acutely aware of their contributions in public education, since 1867, and pre-1867 when provincial governments actually were lining up for their share of education dollars. But in the 21st century, the federal government is not about to keep dumping federal dollars in the provincial education coffers, only to pay out more federal dollars on redressing the literacy/numeracy skills, retraining, and research funding on literacy and numeracy, only to see the provincial governments go off in their different directions, without the foresight of preventing low-literacy and numeracy skills in the first place. The MPS and the federal government only knows too well the negative outcomes of low-literacy and numeracy, and how it impacts their federal goals and aims. They see it every day, and like the comments in the newspaper regarding the CCL report, the common everyday people not only observes it but some of them are living the experience and the fallout of having low literacy and numeracy skills. As they see it, if fault is going to be assigned, it is the provincial governments who are producing poor policies. And do keep in mind Doug, come the Spring of 2012 or so, the Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling regarding the Moore case. It will certainly shake the foundations of every provincial government and a perfect reason for the federal government to walk in, throwing their weight in the K to 12 education system and the so-call expertise of the provincial education systems, that leaves 48 % of the population with low literacy skills, and 52 % with low-numeracy skills.
The federal government is still involved in public education no matter what the Constitution says.
But, once again (and very much like the school boards), if it’s written on a scrap of paper and properly filed, that’s the way it is regardless of reality.
The federal government has nothing whatsoever to do with K-12 education. It is the minor funding partner in postsecondary and skilled trades education.
Try to stick with facts. Harper also has nothing to do with school board or provincial labour relations.
Paul please explain to some people. The feds are not a senior government. We have divided constitutional reality in Canada.
People have a right to their opinions but not their own fact. Harper is not McGuinty’s boss or Dexter’s boss.
follow the money trail.
It is not what I have stated in the first place. The precedents have been set along time ago, regarding education, within the common law, the BNA act and other constitutional laws. The feds could and act anytime imposing themselves on public education dealing with the provinces. The provinces are receiving federal dollars in many aspects throughout the public education system, but the greatest amount of funding is reserved for post-secondary education. If the federal government decided to remove all education funding except for post-secondary funding, each and every provinces would feel it in many different ways.
On the CMEC site, “Educational Funding
In 2005-06, public expenditure on education from provincial, territorial, federal, and local governments amounted to $75.7 billion spent on all levels of education, which represented 16.1 per cent of total public expenditures. Of this total:
•$40.4 billion was for elementary and secondary education
•$30.6 billion for postsecondary education
•$4.6 billion for other types of education such as special retraining and language training for newcomers
In 2002-03, combined public and private expenditure on education was $72.3 billion:
•$42.7 billion on elementary and secondary education
•$5.2 billion on trade and vocational education
•$5.6 billion on colleges
•$18.8 billion on universities
Public expenditure was 82.3 per cent of the total, with private spending at 17.7 per cent.
(All dollar figures are taken from Education Indicators in Canada: Report of the Pan-Canadian Education Indicators Program 2007 and are in 2001 constant Canadian dollars to allow for comparison across time periods.)”
There is limited stats on the amount of federal education dollars going to the provinces, but out of the 2005-06 number of $75.7 billion, the federal dollars only covers the data that is being track. Federal dollars regarding education, crosses over all federal departments, providing not only educational material, but also the funding for provincial education programs, and creating the mechanisms for student mobility to take place. Doug, is very dependent on the federal immigration program that allows foreign students to enter Canada. A nice chunk of change is provided, so Doug can have as many or as few Chinese students he desires. Without the aid of the federal immigration department, he would not have a private school, charging a pricey tutition for high school students. And he should from time to time, be kind to the feds and give them credit for making his school a reality, and his guarantee a reality for the Chinese students.
Since 2006, I could not locate any newer stats, and the closest I came to a better picture is the Google doc from the Alberta university, titled, Economics 281- Chapter 14.
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:Q2NV8M1jj2gJ:www.ualberta.ca/~priemaza/Econ%2520350/Econ%2520350%2520Chapter14a.ppt+The+amount+of+federal+funding+that+goes+to+the+provincal+education+coffers&hl=en&gl=ca&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESj9WS0QR5WXeUIZHBE6xyW7OO_FeFzCbSf1b8zN0lAaiNWV2I1OYTulmt-ul_hY49oZgXa9Nz6CLJgpnytqeGi16kW9M_fVaPiUNaXwfyinHfVUggOIzZYCHu79tSmrDudHy-1z&sig=AHIEtbS7yIdIK2HVtj7fyO6CKg8ySqvVJw
If the link does not work, copy and paste into the address bar.
Where 81 billion is spent at all levels of government.
Where the Canada Social Transfer, 25 % of the 9.5 billion is reserved for PSE, and the provinces do not have to spend their federal dollars for PSE.
And other interesting facts as well, making the case for local control.
The feds are not minor players in PSE, and come to think of it, the feds have provided economic opportunities for the provincial coffers, especially in the trades that are controlled by the federal laws. Every 5 years or so, the trades need to have their qualifications upgraded, and as a result, teachers are hired at the college level to run the upgrading courses. Steady revenues where the feds, the employers and employees contribute to pay for the re-certification of qualifications. As well as a little boom for motel and hotel operators for the accommodations of the workers. Lastly, there is the Senate that has a little industry within their hallow halls, concerning all aspects of education, literacy, numeracy , research for the pass 100 years or so. If it was not for the feds, the provincial education systems would be bereft of any information concerning disabilities and their education needs. Where do you think most of the research is taking place concerning the education of students and children with disabilities?
Where do you think the research can be found in the provincial ministries of education? On a dusty shelf, being ignore by the provincial educrats for the most part.
Doug posted:
The federal government has nothing whatsoever to do with K-12 education. It is the minor funding partner in postsecondary and skilled trades education.
___________________________________________________
Only if tens of billions are considered “minor”.
Try to stick with facts. Harper also has nothing to do with school board or provincial labour relations.
____________________________________________________
Who said he did? Another strawman, Doug?
Paul please explain to some people. The feds are not a senior government. We have divided constitutional reality in Canada.______________________________________________
Strawman No. 2.
People have a right to their opinions but not their own fact. Harper is not McGuinty’s boss or Dexter’s boss.
______________________________________________________
Strawman No. 3.
You’re 0 for 4 this round, Doug.
Credibility rating down to -20.
•Investing $20 million in support of Pathways to Education Canada’s work to support disadvantaged youth.
•Committing $30 million to support better elementary and secondary education outcomes for First Nations students.
Here’s paltry 50 million.
http://www.budget.gc.ca/2010/plan/chap3c-eng.html
Of course, being in a budget doesn’tr mean it will be well spent and doesn’t meabn it’ll be spent at all.
Federal expenditures:
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-582-x/2009003/tbl/b.2.1-eng.htm
Pathways is not day school K-12, Aboriginal education is totally federal. Aboriginals are 3% of Canada.
Pathways,
really Doug, helping students graduate from high school… you are spliting hairs again.
http://www.yorku.ca/igreene/conhigh.html
See # 93 in above link.
game, set, match.
If you want the real goods – try the constitutional experts and the federal sites. You soon find out, how complicated it all is but the federal government can if they want to, get heavily involve in provincial education systems. Also it is evident, in the last 100 years or so, a good chunk of federal dollars is being spent in education of our children, adults and vulnerable populations.
No one said otherwise.
More straw men.
542 million dollars plus “•$2.2 billion per year to help students deal with the costs of education through grants, scholarships and loan programs.”
and throw in another 108 million for “over three years to support young people looking to gain skills and experience.” and that is for the 2010 budget. ”
For the 2011 budget – “•Improving commercialization and supporting demonstration of new technologies in the marketplace by supporting research links between colleges, universities and businesses.
•Enhancing and expanding eligibility for the Canada Student Loan and Grant Program for part-time and full-time post-secondary students.
•Helping apprentices in the skilled trades and workers in regulated professions by making occupational, trade and professional examination fees eligible for the Tuition Tax Credit.”
http://www.budget.gc.ca/2011/glance-apercu/brief-bref-eng.html
And Doug, that is for starters, and keep in mind the funding that has been place for a smooth transition for international students, wishing to obtain an education in Canada. Without the feds, you would have much difficulty in running the private school, you own along with your wife. Than there is the get togethers of the top educrats and other federal departments gathering at global education conferences, and in part if not all, transportation costs to the gathering, especially if the feds are chairing some aspect of the conferences.
Education expenditures from the feds, in every aspect, including all the free educational material available for teachers, and class lessons included.
From a Senate Committee – “Thus, despite Constitutional jurisdictions that assign responsibility for families to provincial and territorial governments, Governments of Canada of every political stripe, in war and in peace-time, throughout the past century, have invested in supporting Canadian families with children. While science gives us new evidence of the importance of
healthy child development and very early learning not only to children,
but to the adults they will become, families and governments have
acted – each in their own way − to protect children from being victims
of their parents‘ poverty.”
Click to access rep05apr09-e.pdf
“The Committee‘s final report recommends that: …the federal government meet with provincial and territorial governments to coordinate the establishment of measurable standards and guidelines for delivering early childhood development and child care to children across the country, matched by adequate funding. Consultations should begin immediately, with proposed solutions to be presented to the Canadian public by July 2009.4”
On page 47, Federal funding for early childhood education, as well as other funding related to early childhood.
“Community Action Program for Children (CAPC) supports projects that deliver a set of integrated health and social programs designed to meet the developmental needs of children between the ages of 0 and 6. The projects target populations that are seen as most likely to be at risk, including families with low incomes; families headed by teenage parents; Métis, Inuit and off-reserve First Nations children; children who are recent immigrants or refugees; children who live in remote or isolated communities; children with developmental delays, social, emotional or behavioural problems; and children who have experienced abuse or neglect.”
A little gem on page 38, regarding social/economic status and how programs should not be targeted on SES alone.
I think it has been made clear, that the federal government funding towards the education of youth, early childhood, to adult education is evident, including the research at the federal levels. Lastly, another link of federal funding being provided, in partnership with Ontario.
“542 million dollars plus “•$2.2 billion per year to help students deal with the costs of education through grants, scholarships and loan programs.”
and throw in another 108 million for “over three years to support young people looking to gain skills and experience.” and that is for the 2010 budget. ”
For the 2011 budget – “•Improving commercialization and supporting demonstration of new technologies in the marketplace by supporting research links between colleges, universities and businesses.
•Enhancing and expanding eligibility for the Canada Student Loan and Grant Program for part-time and full-time post-secondary students.
•Helping apprentices in the skilled trades and workers in regulated professions by making occupational, trade and professional examination fees eligible for the Tuition Tax Credit.”
http://www.budget.gc.ca/2011/glance-apercu/brief-bref-eng.html
And Doug, that is for starters, and keep in mind the funding that has been place for a smooth transition for international students, wishing to obtain an education in Canada. Without the feds, you would have much difficulty in running the private school, you own along with your wife. Than there is the get togethers of the top educrats and other federal departments gathering at global education conferences, and in part if not all, transportation costs to the gathering, especially if the feds are chairing some aspect of the conferences.
Education expenditures from the feds, in every aspect, including all the free educational material available for teachers, and class lessons included.
From a Senate Committee – “Thus, despite Constitutional jurisdictions that assign responsibility for families to provincial and territorial governments, Governments of Canada of every political stripe, in war and in peace-time, throughout the past century, have invested in supporting Canadian families with children. While science gives us new evidence of the importance of
healthy child development and very early learning not only to children,
but to the adults they will become, families and governments have
acted – each in their own way − to protect children from being victims
of their parents‘ poverty.”
Click to access rep05apr09-e.pdf
“The Committee‘s final report recommends that: …the federal government meet with provincial and territorial governments to coordinate the establishment of measurable standards and guidelines for delivering early childhood development and child care to children across the country, matched by adequate funding. Consultations should begin immediately, with proposed solutions to be presented to the Canadian public by July 2009.4”
On page 47, Federal funding for early childhood education, as well as other funding related to early childhood.
“Community Action Program for Children (CAPC) supports projects that deliver a set of integrated health and social programs designed to meet the developmental needs of children between the ages of 0 and 6. The projects target populations that are seen as most likely to be at risk, including families with low incomes; families headed by teenage parents; Métis, Inuit and off-reserve First Nations children; children who are recent immigrants or refugees; children who live in remote or isolated communities; children with developmental delays, social, emotional or behavioural problems; and children who have experienced abuse or neglect.”
A little gem on page 38, regarding social/economic status and how programs should not be targeted on SES alone.
I think it has been made clear, that the federal government funding towards the education of youth, early childhood, to adult education is evident, including the research at the federal levels. Lastly, another link of federal funding being provided, in partnership with Ontario.
“Government of Canada Supports Earth Rangers to Encourage Youth to Discover Careers in Environmental Science”
“Through FedDev Ontario’s investment of up to $1,108,000, Earth Rangers will now be able to bring programming to 785 school groups and reach 400,000 students through hands-on, conservation-related activities. Earth Rangers, an organization dedicated to inspiring and educating children about the environment, will also bring its activities into museums and science centres, such as the Royal Ontario Museum, and make its website more interactive, bringing science to life for thousands of youth.”
http://www.julianfantino.ca/media_/press-releases/government-of-canada-supports-earth-rangers-to-encourage–youth-to-discover-careers-in-environmental-science
The federal government cannot get involved in education except to protect Catholic education where it existed in 1867 and protestant education in quebec. They chose not to do #2 when it was dismantled.
Otherwise they cannot involve themselves in K-12 education.
Every constitutional expert will tell you if the Feds attempted to intervene in K-12 education it would instantly go to the Supreme Court and the provinces would win. It is as clear as glass to those who know.
“The Charter does not embody all our rights as Canadians; it only guarantees basic minimum rights. We all have other rights derived from federal, provincial, territorial, international and common law. Similarly, Parliament or a provincial or territorial legislature can always add to our rights.”
“Under the agreement between the federal and provincial governments that resulted in the Constitution Act, both Parliament and the provincial legislatures keep some limited power to pass laws that may violate Charter rights. This is democratic because it gives the elected legislatures the last word. However, their power is still limited because Parliament or a provincial legislature must specifically declare that it is passing a law “notwithstanding” specified provisions of the Charter. This declaration must be reviewed and re-enacted at least every five years or it will not remain in force. These limits act as a kind of warning to Canadians, and force the government to explain itself, to accept full responsibility for its actions, and to take the political consequences.”
“Although there is no single constitution in Canadian law, the Constitution Act – a part of the Canada Act of 1982 – finally “patriated” or brought home from Great Britain Canada’s constitution as created by the BNA Act. The Constitution Act declares the Constitution of Canada to be the supreme law of Canada and includes some 30 acts and orders that are part of it. It reaffirms Canada’s dual legal system by stating provinces have exclusive jurisdiction over property and civil rights. It also includes Aboriginal rights, those related to the historical occupancy and use of the land by Aboriginal peoples, treaty rights, agreements between the Crown and particular groups of Aboriginal people.”
The above from the federal Department of Justice.
http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/dept-min/pub/just/05.html
The provinces may have the authority to make laws in areas of education, but the laws must be within the legal framework of the Constitution. But do not have exclusive jurisdiction in education. It is why, the federal government could step in at any time, to intervene in K to 12, or any other aspect of the provincial education system. “Cappon makes a compelling case that Canada needs a new federal, intergovernmental agency to oversee the Canadian educational system. He told the Canadian Press that the current Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, of which he was CEO for eight years, is ineffective as a co-ordinating body because everything is done on a consensus basis and it refuses to co-operate with the federal government on education matters.” Probably one of the reasons why the Council of Ministries of Education refuses to cooperate with the federal government on education matters, is the legal limbo concerning the jurisdiction of education, and the Constitution of Canada, their laws that have supremacy over provincial laws in education, and a few other areas. On another front, is the requests in the pass 15 years or so, of new federal, intergovernmental agencies to oversee children, youth and special needs children concerning their education. Most parents do no have the means to challenge provincial laws, or bring a challenge to the Supreme Court of Canada. A federal agency overseeing children and youth regarding education, would be ideal to standardize the provincial education acts, the laws and regulations concerning the education rights of children, youth and special-needs children.
I seriously doubt that Doug, that the provinces as a unit would bring a challenge to Supreme Court of Canada. They can’t even get their act together concerning the Senate, and a number of other issues such as the equalization formula. On another note, I was pleasantly surprised, over the days of reading, that the current federal government has some interest in education at all levels. Perhaps, it is the letters sent by frustrated Canadian parents concerning education matters in the K to 12 system, that runs counter to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as well as the Constitution of Canada. Perhaps, Cappon is correct to make his appeal to Canadians, and asked them to pushed the federal government for a intergovernmental agency to oversee Canadian educational system. Who better than Cappon would know the horror stories of the provincial education systems, their weaknesses, and the failure of the provincial education systems, to reach the full potential of all children. A speech given by Cappon in 2009. Well worth the 30 minutes.
http://www.ccl-cca.ca/ccl/aboutccl/knowledgecentres/adultlearning/KCEvent/KCEvent/KeynoteAddressCappon.html
Speaking engagements by Cappon are building, Rather odd, went through 12 pages and not one anywhere in Ontario.
1.Canada Is Slipping Down the Learning Curve
Hosted by Public Interest Alberta
Supported by:
■Faculty of Education, University of Alberta
■Edmonton Public Teachers’ Local 37
■Alberta Teachers’ Association
■Muttart Foundation
■Confederation of Alberta Faculty Associations
■Success by 6, United Way of the Alberta Capital Region
■Council of Alberta University Students
■Alberta Students’ Executive Council
■Non-Academic Staff Association, University of Alberta
■Education Students’ Association, University of Alberta
■Alberta Graduate Council
http://www.pialberta.org/content/what-future-learning-canada-dr-paul-cappon
2. THE FUTURE OF LEARNING IN CANADA
Implications for Health Literacy and Health Care
Video Workshop
Presented by Dr. Paul Cappon, President and CEO, Canadian Council on Learning
October 24, 2011
9:30 to 11:30 am
http://www.phabc.org/index.php
3. Dr. Paul Cappon, Canadian Council on Learning, will present CCL’s recent findings on all aspects of the learning cycle: from early childhood through school, post-secondary education, and adult and workplace learning and training.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
http://www.sfu.ca/dean-gradstudies/blog/events/FutureOfLearning.html
And here is another national organization, and a union to boot.
“The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) has long called for a Canada Education Act (CEA), like the Canada Health Act, to outline funding commitments from the federal government and provincial/territorial governments. The CCL is calling for a Council of Ministers on Learning— a federal/provincial/territorial body responsible for learning across the country.”
“NUPGE
The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada’s largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE”
http://www.nupge.ca/content/4543/canadian-council-learning-calls-federal-leadership-education
Just wondering why, Ontario education organizations and facilities are missing from action to the extent of arranging an engagement to listen to Cappon. It appears to support Cappon’s allegation, that provincial education organizations as well as the national, don’t play nice, and like to ignore those who support national standards for education, as well as the evidence of the data produced by CCL.
Nancy, I do not have the slightest doubt that they would go to the Supremes and they do not have to unite. If one provice challenges it and wins (and they would win the constitution is clear on education) then the feds must leave all provinces.
Note the drug injection site. BC wins so all Canada is open.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-10-06/news/ct-perspec-1006-urban-20111006_1_poor-children-graduation-rate-gap
The real reason for American failure but many will deny, deny, deny because it does not fit their pet theory or interest.
All the feds have to do is simply to set the criteria to get access to federal monies – and they have every right to do that.
The drug injection sites, is much different from any matters in education. And you know it, Doug. Will that be a new lesson for students in Ontario, to learned that drug addicts have the right to become addicted, and the right to shoot up in a safe place? It is a health and safety issue Doug, not only for the addicts, as well as for the local community.
As for social equity, and the last link you have provided, is exactly the typical fare coming out of the hallowed, sainted halls of where ever the educrats roam and their protected protege of unionists, and other such followers, to maintain the status-quo, their lack of accountability to students, and the students’ future.
Cappon is right that there should be national standards imposed on the provincial education systems, to prevent and halt any slipping in learning. A 2005 article, “As if Grade 10 science isn’t scary enough, suddenly Erika Fabian has to watch out for bears. Deep in the woods beyond North Bay, the
Etobicoke teen is one of a group of Grade 9 grads spending two weeks — and $1,300 — to earn their Grade 10 science credit this summer so many can fast-track into Grade 11 science this fall.”
Click to access TheStar_comPaying_the_price_for_%20real_%20life_lessons2.pdf
In an article 2007, Cappon notes the low number of PS graduates from the sciences, and has been repeated in the recent CCL report. “Not everyone, of course, is inclined to be a scientist. But, says Cappon, the cause for alarm lies in the level of science illiteracy that is being perpetuated. “It’s a question of, “Do you want to understand the world in which you live, or are you just going to walk blindly through life, not understanding how anything works?,” he asks rhetorically. “My concern isn’t so much about how many kids enroll in science in university. It’s how many have science as part of their lives and are able to use it to help navigate their world.” Cappon, a father of two grown children, says that parents are absolutely key. “The family’s role is to support a science culture among the children, to induce them to think about science,” he says.”
http://www.canadianfamily.ca/articles/getting-your-kids-interested-science/
Plunk down $1300, and get a credit after two weeks, is no better than the high school credit mills. Nor is it fair for the student’s future in grade 11 sciences, where they do not have a firm foundation laid down, to understand new science knowledge. Yes, social equity done the educrats way, is a guarantee to lower standards, and a sure bet that a student will be hiring a tutor, for stuff that should have been learned back in high school.
Paul stated, “Having recognized the Canadian system’s strengths, the CCL report doesn’t mince any words when it comes to identifying problem areas. A number of other troubling trends are highlighted in the council’s report, which noted that about one-quarter of kids enter school without being ready, either because of behavioural or learning problems. In addition, Cappon told Canadian Press that boys are now lagging in education and slipping markedly compared with girls from kindergarten to Grade 12. He also re-stated his long-standing concerns about adult illiteracy, as well as the paltry state of private sector funding for post-secondary level research in Canada. ”
Add the sciences and maths, with the above, and below Sun article on the black hole of special education, and there is more than enough to justify a federal intergovernmental agency to oversee the Canadian education system.
“The auditor general’s report also flagged that school boards had no mandatory accountability mechanisms to monitor the effectiveness of their special education programs and ensure they complied with legislation and policy.”
http://www.torontosun.com/2011/09/30/special-ed-funding-is-still-a-black-hole
Literacy in Canada
Almost 50% of Canadian adults can’t work well with words and numbers.
Click to access canada.pdf
Andrew Gilmour
All the feds have to do is simply to set the criteria to get access to federal monies – and they have every right to do that.
They tried that in the past. The provinces ganged together and said specific grants are out. only block grants under CAP will be accepted for health education social services etc. The provinces can spend CAP grants as they choose.
Andrew Gilmour
Literacy in Canada
Almost 50% of Canadian adults can’t work well with words and numbers.
Click to access canada.pdf
Canada has among the world’s very best 15 year old readers. Only Finland and Korea are better. We should emulate Finland more. Education in Korea is a whole different thing close to a national obsession. Teachers are respected, something we could also emulate.
Canada is seen around the world are one of the very very top nations. McKinley group recently recognized Ontario as having the finest education system in the English speaking world.
Still living in the 90s, eh?
Besides, being less illiterate does not translate into being literate.
Andrew Gilmour
Besides, being less illiterate does not translate into being literate.
Name the countries that do better. Pretty short list.
United Nations lists Canada as 99% literate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate
Some people who receive grants to do literacy work have a vested interest in promoting a “high illiteracy rate” for Canada in order to protect and enhance their grants. They keep moving the goal posts for literacy. You will soon need a BA to qualify as literate.
Every time I challenge people to say who is better than Canada there is this funny silence.
visit your local school and ask about their reading recovery program.
Your constant strawman arguments make me wonder about you… or perhaps, your literacy.
I thought Doug was wrong regarding his CAP posting, and below is the proof, to which I selected one concerning the social transfer tax, from a woman’s perspective. Although not really about education, but Andrew is correct, and not as simple as Doug would have us to believe.
“In 1995, the Canada Assistance Plan Act (CAP) was repealed and
replaced by the Canada Health and Social Transfer. On its face, the
CAP was neither gender-specific nor a human rights-promoting
instrument. It was a vehicle for setting the terms of federal/provincial cost-sharing for social assistance and related social services. However, in effect, the CAP was a mechanism through which governments protected the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living, as set out in the ICESCR.”
“Under CAP any provincial government that violated a funding agreement was vulnerable to litigation. An individual could sue the federal
government for failing to require the province to meet the conditions of CAP. The federal government could also withdraw funding if the standards were not being met. Thus the CAP gave Canadians a reasonable expectation that the CAP standards would be enforced by the federal government, and respected by all levels of government.”
“In 1995 the CAP was repealed. The federal government then established the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST), which rolled together money for health, post-secondary education and social assistance and related social services into one unconditional block transfer without designations attached. The loss of the CAP meant the loss of standards for social assistance; the removal of the designation of funds for social assistance and related services, which freed provinces to spend in more popular areas such as health care; and the end to federal-provincial 50/50
cost-sharing.”
“In 2004, the federal government divided the Canada Health and Social Transfer into two parts: the Canada Health Transfer and the Canada Social Transfer. The monies for health are designated and governed by the principles in the Canada Health Act. In contrast, the monies in the Canada Social Transfer are undesignated and have no principles or standards
attached to them. Although the federal government intends the money in the
Canada Social Transfer to support post-secondary education and social assistance and related social services, it can be spent by the provincial and territorial governments in any way they decide, including not on post-secondary education, social assistance and related social services at all.”
Click to access Strengthening_the_Canada_Social_Transfer_FAFIA.pdf
By the way Doug, it is CHST and not CAP anymore. The main trouble with the CHST, is that some of the provinces are not living up to their role in using the funds for post-secondary and social services, As the above link gives the details concerning women, and their rights. But perhaps that may change under the Harper government, because many of the daily services that Canadians may need, such as literacy services are falling on the way side, and funding is drying up from provincial coffers. Doug, mocks the stats showing the percentage of low-literacy and numeracy that is slowing climbing, and by 2014, 11 million Canadians. He rather wave that red herring of 99 % literacy, cited by global concerns, which includes everyone that has the ability to read. What is not clearly mentioned in the global stats, is that in most countries, about 50 % of the adult population have low literacy and numeracy skills. Which is another reason, why there should be a national Canadian agency in Education to ensure that all Canadians, have good literacy and numeracy skills, to navigate in this world.
As with the laws, the CHST can change as well as the other arrangements between federal and the provinces. Throw in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, there is more laws, regulations in the provinces concerning education, that are questionable regarding education practices and as well as being discriminatory. One such regulation and practice, is denying the corrective remediation for reading problems, and make do with what is given in the inclusive classroom, with the standardized curriculum and approved resources. At the other end, the federal programs in retraining and upgrading, hears the tales carried by the adults under the age of 40, their school experiences and their low literacy and numeracy skills. Which is another reason for a national board for Canadian education.
United Nations lists Canada as 99% literate.
And the list 16 countries at 100%. That means we’re 17th at best.
Your point?
Doug:
Harper is one of the strictest constitutionalists we have ha in many years.
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What’s a ha?
Consider the source. Too many educators like Doug ensure that the public education system produces mediocre results, and prevent any real reform to improve the state of education, and ignoring the learning problems.
The comments on any article regarding the state of education in any province run 90-10, and 90 % of the comments complain about the poor state of reading, writing and numeracy among our students and young adults.
Tonight, I went into the local fast food chain, and pulled out the local newspaper to read the local news. I was quite surprised to see a letter to the editor, just over a 1/2 page from a new resident, comparing NL’s education stats in the 3 Rs to the education stats in Alberta. I shall eagerly await for the response from the Education Minister, the school board, and other interested parties, who will be writing in defending the education system, just like Doug does to serve his best interests. If they remain quiet, I am sure it will not be the last time you hear from this woman, but for now, the stats were damning enough.
Should be an interesting week on the radio talk shows, hearing the complaints from the public on education matters.
The Final Report of the Council on Canadian Learning generated a few bizarre commentaries. One of the strangest was posted on the “Let Freedom Rain” Blog (October 11, 2011) dedicated to exposing the dangers of “Fox News North.”
Have a look:
http://letfreedomrain.blogspot.com/2011/10/canada-under-harper-education-falling.html
It must be an attempt at political satire. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is fair game for cutting funding to the CCL, but to suggest that he has anything to do with “Canada failing in education” is ridiculous.
Perhaps I’m just being snookered by a parody of serious political commentary.
Who would ever take “Let Freedom Rain” seriously? Well, Sister Sage, for one. That bizarre post prompted an even weirder “left-progressive” rant:
http://sistersagesmusings.ca/2011/10/11/canada-under-harper-education-falling-behind-other-countries/
Reading this claptrap, makes the Little Education Report look tame. Indeed, I think I can see Doug reading SisterSage’sMusings and feeling a little uncomfortable. (Smile)
What hard lessons lie ahead?
How far can the state of provincial centralization continue to go considering the decline of Canadian rural communities, the decline of rural population, and the decline of student enrolment outside of urban regions?
Does Dr. Cappon’s diagnosis factor in the centralist blight as we continue down the slide? As capital projects accrue at an ever greater expense to the system as a whole, that is precious dollars which could be going into the classroom?
sister sage is certainly halloween material!
Consider the source. Too many educators like Doug ensure that the public education system produces mediocre results, and prevent any real reform to improve the state of education, and ignoring the learning problems.
The reasons “guys like Doug” block reform is that the corporate reform supported by Nancy, SQE and others does not work. Charters and vouchers are failing all over the USA, NCLB teting and punishing is an unmitigated disaster and everyone knows it including conservative, merit pay is falling apart since the Vanderbilt study and the NYC study. It has never worked. Union bashing as proven by the fact that the stronger the union the better the results is a non-starter.
We know what works. More money smaller classes, ECE-ELP, extra tutorial, summer programs, financial support plus efforts outside of school to reduce poverty.
We know what works. More money smaller classes, ECE-ELP, extra tutorial, summer programs, financial support plus efforts outside of school to reduce poverty.
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You still haven’t answered the question as to where all this funding is supposed to come from. That was asked months and months ago.
You still haven’t answered the question as to where all this funding is supposed to come from. That was asked months and months ago.
This is the world’s easiest answer and hs been answered 1000X. It is cheaper to do it than not doing it like insulating a house. The savings in productivity and social expenditure vastly outweigh the cost.
That wasn’t the question.
Do read the words as written, please.
Oh wait, we all go out and plant money trees, right?
Previously you wanted to eliminate poverty as the solution and were asked where THAT money was to come from.
You never answered that either.
Say, how about a 25% surtax on elitist private schools that cater to foreigners?
Doug`s right,so far we have not met with success in the current reform landscape-it`s because Reading First was killed by the lobbyists-illiteracy,created through flawed instruction,becomes rampant.
Instruction that is effective does wonders in communities at risk,more than one can ever imagine.
A publisher in Canada has a very flawed numeracy curriculum,it`s been adopted throughout the country,the teachers all talk about how it does not work,no one listens to them.Our numeracy results certainly show how weak the results are in Ontario.
We can`t find a solution to a problem till we ask the right questions-.
there’s also more to reform than reading instruction. It’s one of many facets of education reform. Can’t focus on one to the exclusion of those others.
The solutions are definitely there and they don’t cost any more than what we are already spending.
It is simply a question of making the right choices and/or being willing to make corrections where wrong choices have been made. There’s nothing objectionable to making wrong decisions if they are corrected.
It boils down to management – and that’s our biggest weakness.
Andrew Gilmour
That wasn’t the question.
Do read the words as written, please.
Oh wait, we all go out and plant money trees, right?
Previously you wanted to eliminate poverty as the solution and were asked where THAT money was to come from.
You never answered that either.
Do you think Finland is a richer society than Canada? It is not yet it has a child poverty rate of 4% while Canada is about 15% and the USA is about 20%. That is totally a matter of priorities.
Why are all the nations (Canada is doing the best here) having serious financial problems? Because we demand high level services but we also demand low taxes. Rob Ford in Toronto is finding out very quickly that if you want high level services you must pay for them.
If you ask an American do you want Social Security, Medicare, Defence spending they say yes. Do you want to pay for them ? No, thus the debt and deficit.
The Tea Party demands “an end to socialism” LOL. OK we will get rid of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, public education, public transportation, libraries, parks, AMtrack, public roads, airports, unemployment insurance, all of which ARE socialism and we get this dumbfounded look from Bubba. What did you think socialism was Bubba?
We’ve done the Finland thing already.
There are all sorts of issues which make it just about impossible to do an apples-to-apples comparison of Canada and Finland.
Yes,I agree with you-ideas that fail can and should be admitted.
Where I see a problem is who`s out there making them change their route when the scores show the kids aren`t succeeding-a 3 year analysis should result in a new plan no?
Andrew Gilmour
The solutions are definitely there and they don’t cost any more than what we are already spending.
It is simply a question of making the right choices and/or being willing to make corrections where wrong choices have been made. There’s nothing objectionable to making wrong decisions if they are corrected.
It boils down to management – and that’s our biggest weakness.
Easy cop out. Sounds like Rob Ford. You can have excellent services and no tax increase I will just be more efficient and get rid of the gravy (waste, fraud and abuse). There is so little of that of course that he could not find any.
I am truly curious-seeing as 90%of every dollar in education budgets goes to teachers`s salaries,where Doug would you put the additional monies so education could be improved?
It certainly boils down to management, but the deeper philosophical debate are the beliefs systems of those within education. And in some cases belongs to the dark ages. How can an educrat state to any parent, ‘Your child is developmentally slow’ or ‘Your child has attention deficit disorder’, or ‘Your child needs to read 300 books per year.”? Back in 2001, 3 different set of parents, and none of the children were developmentally slow, or ADD or needed to read 300 books per year. What they all shared was reading problems that needed to addressed, and not the excuses and current attitudes and beliefs systems. The unions and school boards have done a superb job in politicizing the education of children, to where they actually believe in their own messages and dogma at the expense of the children’s education needs. For unions and boards, the parents and their children have become political footballs to be tossed back and forth, between the two. In reality they don’t give a toss to the student’s best interests and/or the outcomes. unless they serve their own best interests. No matter if class sizes goes down to 10, there will still be 4 students below grade level, and unions will make hay, and boards will make straw. But both will lay fault at the students, parents and anything else that lies outside the walls of the school and its system.
Do they give a toss about the stats in the CLL reports over the years? No, but their solutions is to give the finger to the messenger, and politicized the messages from CLL. No better than the CEO who is justifying their salaries, and than turns around and lays off 500 people to protect the shareholders and of course his million dollar plus salary. They always answer questions by either asking another question, or laying blame or saying a whole lot of edubabble that says they have no intention of answering the question. The public education system, truly believes that they are the saviours of your children, but in reality they are just another sub-set of a collective group who have been well trained into thinking that they know best, to retain their political power, and hold over a capture audience.
Just like the other day, on healthy living day, another thing cook up by the educrats. A whole day without classes, to be added to the snow days, and PD days, and in a few months the board will complain of the hours of instruction lost, and tack on the extra days at the end of the school year or the beginning in some cases. Meanwhile, the solutions of the public education system, and whatever the completing agendas are, rest assure that the students pay the price, while they congratulate each other for a job well done.
Beliefs systems of the people who work within the system, are very important because it has stopped any real improvements to the achievement of students. The students have become mere clogs in a system, sorted, labeled and working for the best interests and agendas of those who dwell in the public education system.
On the The Children of the Code: ” The problem that we have in our middle schools and high schools is no one is doing any remediation for kids who struggle with reading. When you have a child who’s failing in school, there are two approaches you can take. One is remedial and the other is compensatory. This is how it works: you’ve got a child who’s in the seventh grade, but he’s functioning at the fourth grade level. You have a gap there. He’s in the seventh grade reading at the fourth grade level and you want to close that gap. There are basically two ways you can close it. One is with remediation. Remediation says, ‘Kid, you’re in the seventh grade, but you’re functioning at the fourth grade level. I’m going to close that gap and here’s how I’m going to do it. I’m going to make you a better reader. I’m going to give you remedial instruction. I’m going to take your fourth-grade reading skills and bring them up to seventh-grade level. I’m going to close that gap by improving your reading skills and bringing them up to grade level’ That’s remediation and that is good.
The other approach is compensation. Compensation says, ‘Kid, you’re in the seventh grade, but you’re reading at the fourth grade level. I’m going to close that gap and here’s how I’m going to do it. I’m not going to try to make you a better reader. I’m going to take the seventh grade material and bring it down to your level. I’m going to put the book on tape and I’m going to modify the material. I’m going to modify the assessment. I’m not going to try to bridge that gap by improving your skills. I’m going to bridge that gap by bringing the material down to your level.’ That’s compensation, and that’s good, too.
What troubles me as I go around the country is I see that so many schools are so deep into compensation that no one’s remediating anymore. I’ll go to a middle school and I’ll say to the principal, “How are things going with the children with reading problems in this school?” And the principal says, “We’re doing great. In fact, we took all of the history books last semester and we put them on tape, so now the child with a reading difficulty, instead of coming and taking out the history book, he can take out the history tape. We’re done. We’re fine here”. And what that principal is forgetting is this: the problem is not that the child can’t read the history book. The problem is the child can’t read, and by putting the book on tape you haven’t dealt with the problem. You’ve only dealt with a symptom of the problem. It’s like if you had a terrible toothache and I kept giving you pain medication. Well, that’s going to take care of the symptom, but until somebody gets in and deals with the abscessed tooth, you’re going to continue to have problems.
And this compensation that goes on, where instead of trying to remediate the child’s problems we merely compensate for it, as a result of that in almost every state in the United States now there are lawsuits being filed against school systems who are being sued by students who have graduated in the top twenty percent of their high school graduating class, reading at the second or third level because no one ever remediated the problem. All we did was compensate for it.”
http://www.childrenofthecode.org/interviews/lavoie.htm
The above boils down to beliefs and values held by those who work within the education system. And is a regular routine and practice found across every public school, where the solution is to compensate but never remediate the core problems. The CLL reports and the data of literacy, boys’ achievement, is a reflection of the routine of compensation, rather than remediation. The students and parents are confronted with the belief systems, as I was too – Apparently my child had to be compensated, rather them remediation of her core problems. I called it dumbing it down, and the shutting of future doors slamming shut.
Excellent post-I personally agree 100% with your view.
Addressing a whole raft of stuff that was never said and you still won’t answer any questions asked.
I’d say that you and you’re ilk are the large part of the problem rather than the solution.
All you can do is ramble about some sort of ill-defined utopia where everybody is a happy little camper but have absolutely no clue how to get there.
All those who have tried to get that egalitarian heaven have failed miserably.mostly due to one thing – human nature.
Today is Occupy Canada Day, so how about a truce?
Flying under the Radar Screen and,so far, undetected by Educhatter’s brains trust, is the EdCamp Movement. Could it be that we are becoming an Echo Chamber?
Today EdCamp Toronto occupied York University’s Winters College and held a sit-in of their own to tackle the state of Canadian learning. How did you miss it?
Here’s the Final Schedule with the sessions: http://edcamp.wikispaces.com/edcamp+Toronto_final+schedule
It’s the brainchild of Stephen Hurley, Blogger for the CEA. Compare the Big Questions they posed with those raised by Dr. Paul Cappon’s final Report Card. Remember Hurley’s Olive Branch appeal on the SQE website?
Welcome to the “two solitudes” of Canadian education.
in all of those sessions not one word about achievement or accountability.
It’s all fluff and skirts the real guts of the kind of core change that needs to happen to move toward true reform.
That echo chamber you speaker sounds very much like what Edcamp may have been.
It is not 90% it is about 70% + 10% for support staff salaries.
1) We need much smaller classes but unlike McGuinty, I would put them only in the bottom 30% of schools by SES. This is really a shifting of resources not new money but would be phased in over 4-5 years so as not to jerk the system around too much. Cut poor classes by 2 kids per year, raise the rest by one kid per year for the 4-5 year period. In the end I would like to see poor clases at 14-15 kids and the rest at 22-25.
2) I would extend ELP down to toilet trained 2 year olds. Again I would target the bottom 30% by SES.
3) I would pay a 10% bonus to teachers to work in the bottom 10% of the schools. They would not be tested but would need to apply for the jobs as if they were applying for a promotion. They would need high recommendations and demonstrated empathy for the poor kids. The same would be true for principals. It would become well known in the system that if you didn’t do some years in this section, it would be difficult to get the very top jobs, Director, SO etc.
4) I would make Pathways to Education a public program at its core. If corporations want to donate extra OK.
5) I would have interesting educational urban camps for poor kids in the summer to read and discuss interesting books, boost math skills but also visit zoos, museums, sporting events, galleries and write about the experiences. There might be 2 weeks at an out of the city, traditional summer camp, canoes etc but academics would still be stressed. Naturally this would all be part of the publc system and therefore free. The camp staff would be a mix of capilal T teachers, ed assistants or ECE depending on the age and sr. students.
6) I would require teachers to have an MEd to teach elementary school and an MEd and/or subject based MA (MSc, …) to teach secondary. Promotions only for people with both. Principals and up would be required to have an EdD or a PhD.
7) I would phase out tuition for post secondary totally and offer grant-loan combinations on a means tested basis for other student costs. Required books would need to be free and purchased in bulk by the institution.
8) We need to look at ways to increase apprenticeships and pay apprentices more.
Where does the funding come from?
Andrew Gilmour
Where does the funding come from?
The funding comes from you and me but you seem to be having a little trouble understanding that over a ten year period it is actually cheaper to do this than it is to not do it.
A more educated society is more productive and has lower social costs so the corporations make more money that can be taxed, the costs to society of cops, courts prisons, welfare, EI, public housing, and even health costs all go down since educated societies have less need for these social supports.
I constantly make the connection with R&D. Successful companies invest in R&D. The education system is our collective investment in R&D.
Education is not a cost on societies books causing red ink. It is the long term investment that means that we all have far more black ink.
Essentially it is not just free it is better than free. The more we spend on education the better we will all be.
We all understand that investing in our own children’s education pays off. People like me are saying, apply the same logic to investing in ALL of the children.
so invest in the children and the classroom, not in the “education pay off.”
People in the education industry, like those in any other industry, will always claim that spending all sorts of money in their part of the world is a top priority. On the issue of folks with more education being more “productive” that’d only be true if they used their education to benefit society. Consider a teacher with an MA or MEd who simply does the same teaching load as one with the typical undergrad degree and a year at a FofEd. Why is one more “productive” in any real sense. It isn’t the education, rather its what one does with it.
No doubt those in the social housing sector or the environmental sector would also dearly love unlimited funds flowing into their corner of society.
Not so much noble as human nature.
excellent,excellent questions……and the crickets continue to chirp.
The funding comes from you and me
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I see. And where am I (and people like me who are on a fixed income) supposed to come up with the extra cash to fund this if your utopia includes the elimination of poverty?
Doug, you are calling for massive increases expecting a return on R & D?
Even in places in Europe, where post secondary is free, the value of a BA has nosed dived, where it is free, and a student still needs another $10,000 or so, for living expenses. Ten thousand dollars is a conservative figure, since in Europe food shelter and transportation costs are more than in Canada. From what I read recently, that beyond tuition costs, it is the secondary expenses such as food and shelter has stopped students from entering into post-secondary in Canada. A return on R & D, does not happen on its own, even when post secondary is free.
Calling for massive increases, without changing the structure of education, and how education is delivered to students, such as instruction/curriculum or parent/community control, will not increase R & D, since the changes that you have described in your post, are supporting the staff within the education structure. Having a teacher with a master in education, will not automatically ensure that students will reach their full potential and especially not in the present time. “.” The protesters are angry with an education system they say mimics “irresponsible, unaccountable, and unethical financial practices” of Wall Street..” Just one of the many quotes regarding the education systems in this world. http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/10/11/occupy-wall-street-arrests.html
Even the newly minted teachers, who are trying to find a teaching position, an education system that allows thousands of teachers with the shiny new certificates into a market where the number of unemployed teachers outstrips the supply and demand of teachers. An education system, most interested in the number of seats, the profit being made, than the outcomes of newly minted teachers without a teaching position, and the debt load the unemployed teachers are carrying. If anything, the public education systems of developed countries does indeed mimics the corporate world, profit and increasing their share of public monies, without being held accountable for the increasing rate of low literacy and numeracy, and/or the many other stages of education.
In a local newspaper, a letter to the editor: “Government will be spending $841.6 million this fiscal year on primary, elementary and secondary education of which almost $500 million is going to teacher salaries and another almost $200 million to school board operations.” http://www.southerngazette.ca/Opinion/Letter%20to%20the%20editor/2011-10-12/article-2773489/Provinces-education-system-is-failing/1
Doug, the take of salaries is at 83 %, and is par for the other provinces, when it comes to the K to 12 system. Raising steadily from the 1970s, from 60 % to the current 80 something percentages. At the same time, the steady rise of parents seeking private tutoring for their children, as well as steady rises of homeschooling, private schools, and other private solutions, to addressed the declined of their children’s education being delivered by the public K to 12 education system. The rising rate of parents with LD children, enrolling their children at private LD high schools, to remediate the weaknesses of their children, so they can enter post-secondary. An education system, that compensates learning weaknesses, rather than remediation of the core learning weaknesses of all students, and not just the LD students.
What you are calling for, is essentially investing the monies towards the people who are working within the system, to protect their salaries, their pensions, the profit within and outside of the education system, and using the trickle-down economic theory, that the students will benefit, and in turn they will be less dependency on social services and an increase in R & D. The only increases in R & D that would occur in Doug’s model, is the remediation of the 3 Rs and the private services and products supporting the 3 Rs, and as well as unlearning, than reteaching. One of the many reasons why the Occupy protesters are protesting. The lack of accountability and unethical practices in our public education system.
Looks to me as if the Dougs of the world are saying “Give me your money and trust me”…
I should think that doing more of the same and expecting different results is a bit odd.
Here is one to twist your mind into a pretzel, and to where the upper levels of the education system is willing to sit back, enjoying the profits? And perhaps becoming the elites in all things education.
“Not only did Rupert Murdoch give the keynote speech at the education summit held under the aegis of Jeb Bush the past two days in San Francisco. His News Corporation is seeking to make its way into the for-profit education business, as signaled last year when Joel Klein, the former New York City school chancellor, went to head News Corp’s education division: If you needed proof that education is a business, there it is.”
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/news-corp-and-the-business-of-education.html#ixzz1ax1dpkc3
Keep in mind Murdoch top employees, and the hacking of smart phones, and the most recent case of an ordinary person, with no serious hacking skills, is facing a possible sentence of 125 years, for hacking into cell phones on some Hollywood celebrities. The difference between the Murdoch employees and that ordinary person, is that the Murdoch employees did it with some serious electronic gear, and the ordinary person used old fashioned detective work, figuring out the celebrities passwords, based on their personal information on their web sites. An activity and pastime of our youth as young as 7 or 8 years old, getting access to other people’s information, because passwords are based on personal information, and it becomes dogged determination on their part and a bit of luck. The question is, why the Murdoch employees are not facing a sentence of 125 years? I am beginning to think, that the top levels of the public education system, would rather have a society devoid of ethics, to where the elite within the public education systems, can do what they want to serve their own best interests, without being accountable for their actions, and policies that drives people below them to do behave and act in ways that are not in the best interests of the students. But is sure does give the upper levels of the education system, power and political power to ensure that the various agendas within an education system, are working only for their best interests, and the student’s best interests are secondary. Much like the harsh sentences imposed on the teachers in the Atlanta area.- “Georgia’s Professional Standards Commission last week issued punishments to 11 educators implicated in the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal. Eight teachers received a two-year suspension of their teaching certificates, and three administrators had their certificates revoked.”
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/educators-stripped-of-licenses-in-atlanta-cheating-scandal.html#ixzz1axBYModZ
CCL went the way of the do-do bird, because the top levels of the education system wanted it gone, and not the perceived reason of the federal government and cut backs. Will the EdCamps disappear too? Time will tell, and especially if they are taking shape like the Occupy protests, with no set agendas or goals. I wondering what the top level educrats in the Toronto area is thinking about, concerning the Toronto Ed Camp, and topics being discussed that is far remove, from effective lesson plans and practices.
“What might be the educational version of Occupy Toronto? Michelle and Neil”
http://edcamp.wikispaces.com/edcamp+Toronto_final+schedule
EdCamps might become the version of Occupy version for education, questioning the values and ethical or lack of in the upper levels of the education system. It is time for the teachers of the front line to start working for the best interests of their students, instead of playing the games and the dance of the educrats. Otherwise, the CCL reports on low literacy and numeracy will only increase as time goes by, and profits will increase within and outside of the public education system.
This is hardly more of the same, it can also be phased in and field tested over a 10-15 year period.
LOL. Using the same standards and methodology currently in used? Anything goes these days, as long as it keeps reproducing the same mediocrity results in the CCL reports as well as in other data/achievement. After all, there must be a reason why the top levels of education continue to ignore the low literacy and numeracy of Canadians. Perhaps to make room for the private schools such as yours to rescue the students who have potential, but not the base skills in literacy and numeracy needed to do all advance work with some ease.
This is hardly more of the same, it can also be phased in and field tested over a 10-15 year period.
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So the current batch of kids are consigned to the trash heap as educrats contemplate their navels for 10-15 years.
….and continue to pocket very VERY good salaries as it costs us more and more to educate fewer and fewer children. What math genius can we get to play Fun With Numbers on that baby?
I have no objections whatsoever about teachers being well paid. I DO have very strong objections to the educrats being overpaid and then spending the bulk of their time preventing the teachers from doing the jobs they’re supposed to do.
I don’t consider all teachers educrats my friend. That is a VERY deep pool and I do resent my money being spent on folks who rarely see the inside of the classroom and if they do, anoint themselves “experts”.
Educrats are not teachers and good teachers are not educrats.
I thought the distinction was quite clear.
In my experience your “clear” distinction hasn’t been the case. The lines are very VERY blurred.
Please read my words exactly as written rather than assuming things that aren’t there.
Perhaps the worst I have said about teachers is that some that are better than others.
I can read and comprehend just fine. The “educrat” pool in my experience can and usually does include educators…..good, bad, indifferent. Many aren’t. I venture also that there are some parent educrats that fill that bill nicely too.
Big “educrat” pool.
So the current batch of kids are consigned to the trash heap as educrats contemplate their navels for 10-15 years.
Of course not phased in means things get better every year.
Catherine, teachers are 70% of the education budget, support staff another 10%, 10% is used to keep the lights on the heat on and by supplies, there is another 10% that is used mainly for reno, repairs and new schools.
The only way to save money on education is fewer and/or cheaper teachers. We are getting fewer but unless you want massive school closings you can only go so far in that direction.
Schools have been allowed to deteriorate badly for many years and need massive repairs.
Teachers make less than almost any profession with similar education.
Even attempting to save money on education is a foolish in the long run. t is cutting off your nose to spite your face. It lowers the standard of living for everyone.
New school capital projects are separate from the Education budget. It is called the Dept. of Infrastructure and Renewal in NS. They’re across the hall.They then hand over the responsibility of a new school to the respective school board.
The maintenance of schools in NS is paltry at best. This is a major factor in school closures, out migration and the overall decline of rural NS.
It is not hard to recognise an ever increasing BLOB while enrolment declines.
There are several ways to save money in public education. Closing community schools unecessarily only accelerates declining enrolment.
Steven – we have the same disconnect in small town/rural Ontario. What’s worse is that those bright ideas and programs drummed up for and by those in large urban centres simply do NOT play out well in rural communities.
http://www.am920.ca/news.php?area=details&cat_id=4&art_id=19346
The Blob’s solution to the problem, close schools, funnel any savings into the urban Early Learning and full-day K programs, and charge us all more for educating fewer and fewer children.
Tell me Steven. In N.S. are school boards still well staffed or are they losing bureaucrats to keep pace with declining enrollments?
I suspect what other “professions with similar qualifications” teachers are being compared to would be an interesting issue.
Catherine,
school boards, at least on the south shore are continuing to hire tech assistants, while maintaining their existing troops. Some cuts have occured in the special ed catagory. Especially with special ed assistants. Predictable while they consider the unprecedented cuts to the overall system.
The most significant decline in enrolment will affect the high school poulation over the next seven years on the south shore. This is a result of following the elementary decrease in numbers as the students move up the chain.
So naturally, classes will increase and result in large split classes, in lieu of demand for more teachers.
IMHO, Vic Fleury Nova Scotia School Board Association thinks any more cuts to the provincial system will cause serious damage.
As usual the cuts seem to be aimed at the classroom, not the system.
Cuts always come down to the school boards and their preference.
Darwinian at best.
It would be interesting to see some national goals set to re invest in a rural school infrastucture plan to replace the out dated and rudderless ship of centralization. It is just a big money loser.The governing party at the time in the province of NS always seems to trot one out prior to an election.
Closing schools while talking rural renewal agendas has become a tiered and old oxymoron.
Generally speaking the nation is urbanizing and centralizing. Most rural and hinterland areas are vastly over-represented in parliament and legislatures.
It would be nice to expect the same level of educational services in rural areas, nice but also very naive. It is just not going to happen. At best they can hang on to what they have longer.
Boarding schools are the answer. Kids go to city Mon-Fri home for the weekend.
“Boarding schools are the answer. Kids go to city Mon-Fri home for the weekend.”
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Boarding schools are YOUR answer but then again, you constantly carry on about what lousy parents everbody is.
Having been to boarding school I can assure they aren’t the “answer” to very much.
boarding schools are the answer.
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Dr. Cappon is right; there is an “enormous vacuum”.
“enormous vacuum” and black whole combined with what I heard coined as an axis of excuses overseen by “the blob” and we’ve got something closely resembling the horror show that is education in this country.
If not boarding schools them what is the answer, schools of 5-6 kids all over the country side with all of the programming difficulties that come with that?
Some people need to smell the coffee. When you live in very low density areas, you simply cannot have the same services as those who live in high density areas. NO GOVERNMENT can afford that left right or centre. Keep dreaming. Nova Scotia can elect Tories, Liberals or NDP, these basic facts will not change. Lets hear your viable solution.
5-6 kids is a Fox News North perspective.
We deal with realities in NS because it is imperative.
Solution – start with the community in question.
Not an over-abundance of schools with “5 or 6 kids” so let’s not start with the strawmen again.
Besides, that was already addressed in another thread.
There ares plenty of reasons why Doug represents “territoriality” when it comes to a national goals – but they are glib and vacuous.
However, if one believes rural decline is quantitative, then provincial strategy is a moot point. Rural strategies have to be qualitative and concurrent with rural growth initiatives. They cannot work in opposing directions. The recent IT discussion was a great point of departure for the dillema facing equal services with unequal populations.
Perhaps Dr. Cappon is another voice in the national wilderness?
Right you are Steven!
As indicated in the CCL report, Cappon is correct, and relates to the two of the questions posed in the report. 3. . “What mechanisms are required to ensure that levels of government co-operate fully—as they now fail to do—
in the interests of the learning futures of Canadians
of all ages?
4) How can Canadian publics, institutions, industry and governments work together to reverse present regressive trends and create conditions for future success?
Doug, and other like him within the education system, are one of the biggest problems that the Canadian public education has. Attitudes, biases, misconceptions, and backward thinking that belongs back in the dark ages. Where ever one goes, there is bound to be a few mucking it up to prevent progress, because it is not in his best interests. Like the ridiculous comments of Doug, on schools composed of 5 to six students. The misconception of rural areas being depopulated, whereas the truth is the rural areas have stable populations more or less. Of course, the truth always messes up those who lie within the extreme left of the political spectrum, and in my opinion we have far too many of them populated within the education system. But still at the end of the day, far too many working for their best interests and private agendas, who have the political capital and sometimes power, to spread their untruths upon the parents, taxpayers and students.
A public education system, no matter what part of the country it is in, the old chestnut to justify less services for rural areas based on population density. Perhaps so, but the low population rural areas, do not need the urban rules meant for the urban areas in education. Some crazy rules have come down from the urbanites that represents a waste of money, capital, and makes it that more difficult to operate a rural school. What a waste of time, and money erecting signs in front of the school, no parking between school hours. An issue with the urban schools, but not an issue with rural schools. The closest thing to a traffic jam of one minute to maybe at the most 4 minutes, is drop-off and pick-up. Or the reverse practice, when the Toronto Board decided on a school, and combine three grades. Crazy, to think it is possible to do the same thing in some rural areas.that the practice is the norm. Also the norm, is having the same teacher for two years or more, for one subject, but it would indeed be an impossible task for an urban high school. The reason why both practices are successful in rural areas, because relationships are that much closer and education can be personal, individualized at the local area. It is all about doing more with less, and a concept that is rare in the urban schools, huge populations, where a teacher is lucky to get to know 100 students by their first names, let alone the parents, and a staff at a school, who all live on the other side of the city. One thing I don’t miss, is having my kids attend an urban school, where the schools, are more apt to hand out the rules, and school policy in one hand, and usher you out by the back door of the school. Or phoning up an urban board, for clarification, only to received a sophisticated answer of the edubabble, unlike the rural board, who opts for simplified answers, without the edubabble. Either way, rural or urban boards still receives zeroes for not answering the question in clear language.
Rural districts, need their own policies that fits the communities’ needs and the students who go to the rural schools. On healthy living day last week, the whole school went for hikes, the easy one or the hard one, and the main background noise, was rifles and hunters hunting for moose. If the was a supplanted urbanite in charge, the hikes would have been called off, due to safety issues, just like the imported policy of lock-downs. Where lock-downs occur when a parent raises his voice to the principal. And yes, you guess it, nine times out of 10, it is principal who hails from urban areas. Centralization is a curse for rural areas, as well as a great many local urban school communities, who have very specific problems and conditions that are not the norm. As Cappon has stated in his report, it is time to put down the misconceptions, the biases, the politics and get to work, coming up with solutions to reverse the trends and create conditions for future success.
Memo to Educhatter Nation:
A rant inspired not by Don Cherry, but rather by your recent posts:
Dr. Paul Cappon has been urging a stronger federal presence in education for some time. Since 2010, he’s been campaigning to save CCL and to revivify the international standards initiative. He’s also been dogged by educators with Edu-Blogs like Stephen Downes of “Free Learning”:
http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?author=Paul%20Cappon
Reading Stephen Downes’ posts is an eye-opener. After 20 years, there are still “school reform deniers” in Canada masquerading as “progressives.” Very few choose to even communicate across the ideological divide in education. (Yes, Doug, that’s a back-handed compliment)
In the Edu-Wars, you can absorb a lot of psychic energy focusing on the wrong targets. The CEA has embraced the EdCamp Movement, but I was one of the few to “tweet up a storm” about their recent EdCamp Toronto session. See Twitter @Educhatter for the stream of critical questions… Jo-Anne attended and found the “unconference” very unsettling for those of us who believe in raising Canadian educational standards.
Simply stated: We should be focusing on Stephen Hurley, Max Cooke, and the CEA — and not The Little Education Report..
Get in the game, Educhatter Nation! I’m not saying that Dr. Paul Cappon is a saint, nor without blind spots, but… It’s no time to sit on the sidelines when it comes to promoting a national agenda for educational excellence…
Wow, a bit surprised that Jo-Anne found EdCamp a disappointment. She had high hopes when Mr. Hurley unveiled the event over at SFT. I’d like to hear more from any who attended…..and were surprised that it really WAS like a summer camp – minus the campfire songs and arts & crafts.
Stephen Hurley is more open-minded than most, judging from “Teaching Out Loud” and his expressed commitment to open dialogue.
EdCamp Toronto (October 15, 2011) simply did not measure up to his expectations. Look at the Sessions and judge for yourself:
http://edcamp.wikispaces.com/edcamp+Toronto_final+schedule
Some 178 teachers “liked” the event on Facebook and the sessions were driven by the usual suspects (“progressive” educators behind “21st Century Skills.”) Even the chief organizer, Stephen Hurley, acknowledged that good “feelings” will not translate into action without any clear, coherent agenda.
Hi Catherine,I don`t think that Literacy,Reading and Instruction are the only problems at public school,I know there are many more but this is the one issue I can contribute to and have sound advice to offer…
I can smell fuzzy curriculum a mile away and that`s why Ed Camp bothered me so much-“does tweeting improve literacy”?Eg..too much to bear…
For those that want to follow the CEA Blogs,I have fought hard for research based reading instruction in the blog titled”How Do Children Learn to Read”.
My argument was with Dr.Ben Levin.
Here is the absolute truth in our dire literacy landscape,we need to teach-right now we pray they get it through literature and osmosis-the prevailing method in all Canadian classrooms,but what about those that need instruction?yes,depending on circumstances like SES,first language versus ESL,LOTS OF EAR INFECTIONS WHEN YOU ARE YOUNG,NOBODY READING YOU STORIES BECAUSE YOUR PARENTS CAN`T READ AND A PREDISPOSITION TO DYSLEXIA-GENETICALLY IN YOUR FAMILY-THAT`S a group of 40-50 percent that will struggle.We need to teach.
These symptoms describe all our First Nations children,so if you are a teacher trained in whole language and you work with those kids,you need to learn how to teach them.
My problem with Ed Camp is one I have with the York Campus teachers and profs all the time,they insist on redefining the word literacy-literacy is the knowledge to read,spell and write .With reading proficiency and vocabulary growth we can then infer and be much more creative with words-but leave that word alone,it`s too important to fiddle with.When you are literate,you also do much better with all those math word problems.
And Doug,the PISA tests does not represent what is really going on in Canada-the adult literacy scores from Statscan do-same goes with EQAO-We struggle with 40percent of the population.They become our high school drop outs.
I have also written in on a blog about transforming First Nations Literacy through trained teachers and instruction that deals with something called weak phonological awareness,a syndrome you are either born with or develops due to low stimulus environments.
Where is the voice for this research at Universities who train teachers?
Breaking News – from Stephen Downes to Educhatter:
“You missed it – I blogged it six days ago:
http://www.downes.ca/post/56420
Comment:
It seems that “Free Learning” continues to have little use for Dr. Paul Cappon and the CCL. I wonder – why?
PISA TIMMS OECD is the world standard. People are flocking to Canada from around the world to see how we do so well, read educationnews.org the comments are there.
Nancy, CBC featured a school in NL with two kids. Last year it had three. One was grade 4 one in grade 10. If you think that is functional far be it from me to argue. Steven seems to think technology is part of the answer. All I can say is I would not want my kids educated on one end of a computer. The school teams, the prom, the daily interaction with kids their own age cannot be duplicated with Khan Academy or Skipe or any other form of distance education and 3 hours on a bus each day, well that speaks for itself.
The funny thing to me is that “reformers” decry the public school spending but when it comes to services for their rural kid the state should not even notice the expense. Homeschool if you want it is a viable option but I have yet to hear a real world answer to the situation of the rural kid who’s community just keeps getting smaller. The ‘out-ports’ kids had their own schools, then they got smaller so they were bussed, later the routes were too long so boarding school was the answer.
You will eventually come around to my way of thinking but if you want to try everything else first, knock yourself out.
I kinda like the “somebody ought to do something and it ought to involve technology” aproach. Talk about vague. Lets get specific here. Exactly how do you propose to educate populations of rural kids.
One way in Northern Ontario is to rethink the total nonsense of town like Wawa Ontario with one English Public school, one English catholic school, one French catholic school and one French Public school all of which are dysfunctional in size.
Most school closures in NS that I have been aware of are equally political as they have been numerical.
The numerical range for school utilization reviews in NS are ie; high schools – have been about 65 students to 300 or so ( some acceptions like Tancook Island). Doug, you need to change your cable network; too predictable!
If you consider the centralist magnet of “better programming in a larger community near you”, it becomes evident how school boards manipulate the exodus of small community populations to the place where the grass is always greener over the septic tank!
School boards ( and their staff) can do this over a prolonged period of time in a very effective fashion.
This is not an effective national vision I would want to throw money at – let alone provincial.
Well Doug, our really small schools, only represent the number of them being under 5. Transporting them, by boat , than a trip on a bus has always be wrought with the problems, the weather, and it always comes down to having a small school open, with a couple of teachers. With the advent of digital technology, well the world is opened up to them. As for socialization, these kids are comfortable with all kinds of kids and adults. In fact, they are probably more forgiving, less incline to bully, and always willing to help. Of course, you may not appreciate growing up near water and boats, but it certainly does represent a set of skills that are certainly useful as adults. One day, you may be thankful, that on a stormy sea, a Newfoundlander is steering the ship, rather than the mainlander from Ontario. But than again, you probably would not be caught dead in an area, where there is no Timmy’s to keep you warm.
Boarding schools, are not the answer and believe me, no school district are thinking about it, because of the legal liability. There is a couple of law suits on the go in Ontario, concerning Thunder Bay school board and the natives. Ontario just doesn’t want to pay teachers to come to the more remote areas like Alberta and NL. Hell, Alberta pays workers to stay and reside in their remote parts. Sorry Doug, boarding schools of your kind, is just another form of the native residential schools, and no parent is foolish enough to sign a piece of paper, dissolving the school board of all liabilities. It is much easier to get teachers to adopt the life style of rural living, especially when technology makes it that much easier to do so.
Funny thing about rural education expenditures and urban education expenditures; every time a urban school has a new addition, renovations, or even a new school, expenditures drops in the rural areas. At the moment in my own rural outport, it is not a concern, since they have been spending big time at the two schools. There is marble countertops in the 4 area kitchens in the home economics classroom. Top of the line appliances, and in total the high school has 7 kitchen areas. The other three are located in the staff room, the update cafeteria, and a room, meant for visitors such as parents, and other board staff. A wood shop fully equipped with all the power tools on the market, two science labs, and an art lab to boot. Our school may only have 200 students, limited course selection, expanded course selection by e-learning, but everyone knows everybody else, who went to the bar, who drove their car across the front yard, and it does not take too long for bad news to make its round through facebook. In NL, about 1/3 of the rural schools have 50 students and under, and you be surprised what they do have in equipment and resources. Some of the best academics from NL, (or rather the majority) hailed from rural NL, and not from the urban areas. At least the gifted with high IQs are looked after a whole lot better than the big cities counterparts, and as well there is enough stories,of city folks moving to rural NL, as in other rural areas of Canada, singing the praises of rural education. Sure there is trade offs, but not the stuff you are implying, like a third rate education system, like walking on dirt floors. Perhaps, Ontario may be that way, and I don’t know, but the major complaint I have read over the years, is not enough resources, and attitudes of the townies.
” Simply stated: We should be focusing on Stephen Hurley, Max Cooke, and the CEA — and not The Little Education Report.. ” Except, I don’t like Max Cooke, a progressive in sheep’s clothing, when he is really a wolf opting for the centralization, the awful curriculum, and he more than likely really does not want to hear from others whose viewpoints run counter, or even engage with others using the old fashioned technique of two-way communication.
Otherwise CEA mission statements says it all: “CEA is dedicated to the improvement of public education in Canada. From social justice, to community mobilization, to stakeholder relations, to policy, to research, staff offer a diverse background of knowledge and experience.”
I can’t trust a education organization, that sees SE kids as an equity issue, rather than issues dealing with the instruction practices, curriculum, and knowledge vacuum how SE kids learn. Somehow, throwing a calculator their way or an audio e-book, is a poor substitution for direct instruction and avoiding the work of addressing their learning weaknesses, to level the playing field, and a direct connection to reach their full potential. More troubling, is that they see grammar, and other such quaint instruction as unfair to the students, due to the sloppy equity and social justice crap running through the pedagogy and instruction methods. What is really unfair, when the student goes to post-secondary and finds he cannot do the work or the grade 12 graduate is let go, because he does not have the basic foundation skills in the 3 Rs, to do the tasks. Even today, at the IEP meeting, sorting out the equity BS, explaining how dumb is etch onto the foreheads of the LD kids, and how the label is put back onto the kids at every turn, through the literature and knowledge being provided by the educrats. At least at this IEP meeting, the teacher saw a different perspective and the negative outcomes, by using my youngest as the prime example.
Personally, it may be just me, I consider a highschool of less than 500 a bit dysfunctional but if the community wants it kept open go for it but please do not complain when there is no subject specialist in many areas, when many teachers refuse to work in such a small isolated school (just like rural doctors) when the arts program is minimalist or non-existent, when the principal must teach, there is no VP no librarian, one half time in guidance, and on and on.
I once asked a friend from Sault ste Marie a pretty large city by northern standards, what he taught. He said “English and history and geography and 9-10 math and 9-10 science and PE” The teachers become Jacks and Jills of all trades and masters of none.
Oh ya, we can handle any small courses on-line. Fine then go for it and quit complaining, you cannot have it both ways.
There seems to be some kind of denial of the rapid unbanization going on in Canada and elsewhere. John Ibbitson in his latest book states, Canada will soon be about 10 cities held together by trees in between. This is reality folks. It is not the governments responsibility to reverse the trend.
Reality is not the assumption that trends define our identity let alone a national vision for education predicated on urbanization.
Ibbitson could use a refresher course in rural 101 in order to see why progressive education and the Canadian demographic are now firmly entrenched and at odds with each other.
We are a community of communities.
Ever been in a boat Doug? No trees in between. Now there’s an education.
http://geology.com/articles/satellite-photo-earth-at-night.shtml
This is the world at night. The white naturally represents where people actually live. You cannot wish this was different. It is the way it is.
Ho-hum Doug, typical urbanite who think their way of doing things is the center of the universe. Perhaps, if rural folks went on strike, how long do you think when the first run of stockpiling food would happen? And so on, the many different raw items and resources that are moved from rural to urban? It is this kind of attitude that gets in the way of good policies in any silos of the government. especially in education and health. Somehow urbanites, see rural people as though they have less basic needs than the person in the city. It never ceases to amaze me, how the lack of knowledge and common sense coming from policies, indicates this overwhelming attitude, that somehow rural people are less than their counterparts in the city. But than again it does not surprise me, especially the extreme left of the political spectrum, who has the same vision as Chairman Mao’s, exiling his most needy urban citizens into the rural areas, and promptly abandoning them. Now it is the reverse, importing rural pheasants, that forms the army of migrant workers, roaming the city by day, and locking them up in gated ghettos. The last time I check, they were closing up the schools. Nice eh?
As for Ibbitson, I dare say that it is hard to believe that he stated that. So I take your interpretation with a grain of salt. You just wish it to be, but Canada is a big place of regions of cultures, politics, and the urban/rural split. Regardless, the urban needs the rural more, than the rural needs the urban. As for the bit of Sault St. Marie, you can give thanks to the lousy policies of the education ministry regarding rural regions, and their ability to see rural people and their needs in the abstract. It is why schools with some size are going without, especially when the specialist teachers are being redirected to address the needs of schools in urban areas. Specialist teachers a shortage created by the unions and education faculties. Meanwhile an over supply of general teachers, looking for work. I dare say that specialist teachers in rural areas, is regionally define depending on government policy. Not a problem in my area, but than again, a similar rural size in Ontario, may indeed have a shortage of everything, including a leaky roof at the school. It always help to have a cabinet ministry for a MHA, and how many rural MPPS are in the Liberal cabinet in Ontario?
We can have it both ways Doug, plus also have living outdoor eco-labs where ever rural schools are found. Nothing quite as fancy found at the education centers in urban regions, but than again the students will be learning science skills, that will become very useful in their adult lives. Tossed in the gardens that seem to be all the rage in the urban settings, and a few contests to see who grows the biggest pumpkin, or yields the biggest harvest crop. I bet the rural students will win hands down in that department, as well as increasing their share of medals at the science fairs. Who knows put some of the Toronto students in their place. And you want to know something Doug, the only reason that it is not happening, because it is against the rules and regulations. On top of the safety codes, and another host of various reasons. The outdoor eco-lab in my area, would not be unique in NL, but very novel in other parts of the country, where sea otters, live among the ducks, a few Canadian geese, the usual assortment of sea gulls, as well as the frogs, a few fish species, and if you are really thirsty, the water is drinkable. I forgot to mentioned the hawks and eagles, which the latter is soon to make an appearance cleaning up the small wildlife, The owls are here to, but have left eating their way through the rodent population. Real shame, because the things learn and being observed at the eco-labs could be share through the Internet. Imagine, a grade 5 student in the inner city, seeing an eagle swoop down on its prey, and the speed done as graceful as a ballet dancer twirling on her toes. Perhaps, it could really help to get rid of the misconceptions that urbanites think of rural people and their lives.
When my youngest was going to grade school, sometimes the moose paid a visit to the playground. Just wonders in, having a look around, and wonders out, even when the kids were playing out in the playground.
Urban-rural, left-right, federal-provincial, either-or: how many false dichotomies can I put in one sentence? Such labelling is anti-democratic since it is designed to cut legitimate debate. Besides most of life, including schooling is not a true-false question. Like great food we need a little of this and a little of that and some of an additional ingredient or two or ten.
The sooner we recognize the complexities of schooling the more likely we can improve it.
I learned a lot living and working in rural BC, in Toronto, in the US, in New Zealand, in Hong Kong, in Iceland. The world is wonderful if we take the best from many sources. Same with schooling.
The CCL was a fine idea for it could at least show provinces who often do not talk to each other- I have worked in four- some possibilities and hold their feet to the fire. It is a shame that the feds cut it. It would be good to revive it in some meaningful way without the endless debates about national standards which have, in the case of history, have gone on for more than a century.
Could you give us an example of how the CCL held a province’s feet to a fire John?
You’re right about the use of labels working to shut down discussion…some here try but have never succeeded….yet.
Keep it as is, an organization that provides important stats and other relevant information for the individual provinces, or move it closer to Cappon’s vision?.
“My feeling is that, if I can help to steward CCL over the current rough patch while awaiting restoration of funding to it or to a similar institution, others will come forward in leadership roles, and will build upon the very solid base that I believe that we have established for Canadian learning. ”
http://www.ccl-cca.ca/CCL/AboutCCL/PresidentCEO/20101005TheFuture.html
Why not have the provinces fund it, since together it would be a drop in the bucket compared to some of the other expenditures that are more waste, especially in the education files.
“Personally, it may be just me,”
_______________________________________________________
You got that right, Doug.
A pleasant change from your regular mantra.
“The CCL was a fine idea for it could at least show provinces who often do not talk to each other- I have worked in four- some possibilities and hold their feet to the fire. It is a shame that the feds cut it. It would be good to revive it in some meaningful way without the endless debates about national standards which have, in the case of history, have gone on for more than a century.”
_______________________________________________________
Indeed, but they arrived at too many conclusions the educrats didn’t want the public to know about.
“Educrat” is such as dismissive and unproductive label!
Nancy has a better idea.
Right. Let’s not define anything at all. Let’s keep it all vague and opaque.
If you read the link that I provided in my last post, Cappon writes, “We were not prepared to abandon so important a social project as the catalyst of lifelong learning in Canada simply because the government of the day had decided that reliable information and impartial analysis were unimportant to the country, or because it procured no immediate political advantage. Instead, we have viewed ourselves as stewards of an important national institution—an organization whose genesis required decades and which is essential to the fabric of Canadian society.”
http://www.ccl-cca.ca/CCL/AboutCCL/PresidentCEO/20101005TheFuture.html
After watching a number of speeches, and of course other related material, Cappon has not forgotten how education developed in Canada, or as Steven has stated, a community within communities. Life long learning, has always been present in Canada from the beginning, in the individual villages, towns and the beginning of cities, in the one-room school houses, to the adult school versions run by the churches, to the merchant who simply wanted better skilled employees in counting his gold. In part it is what built this country, and formed the first government in 1867, a rag-time gang of self-taught individuals for the most part, with no fancy private schools, but just the usual assortment of people in their respective communities who had the abilities and skills, and than taught others. It was a matter of survival a way to give the finger to the British and French crowns, and brought prosperity and freedom to those that landed on the shores of Canada, to begin to build the foundation that many of our public institutes rest on.
Our public education system, and the many completing agendas, has forgotten their past. The past of people having 2 or 3 languages under their belt. Even my own mother had 4, and was fluent in two languages, and she only had a grade 9 education. They may not have been scholars, or even worthy of academic higher learning, but the people who had the know-how, view themselves as stewards of a new country emerging and part of it, was the education of its people, to have the skills that were important for the development of a nation. Cappon, has the same vision, and quite frankly, that scares the so-called stewards of the public education system.
“Finally, a few remarks from a personal perspective: from the beginning of my association with CCL, I have been suffused by the vision of learning in Canada as the 21st century equivalent of the 19th century railway marvel that linked the country from East to West—at a time when assimilation to the U.S. from North to South might have appeared its more likely fate. Neither the imperative of Canadian self-determination and distinctive identity—nor the immense challenges to them—have lessened over the decades.
For these reasons, I have always considered the nation-building potential of CCL one of its fundamental attributes. In this, I have been enormously privileged to work with a Board—both current and past members—who have shared this vision both of the country and of the driver of lifelong learning that is at its core. Similarly, the staff, who have helped to build this Council and to maintain the highest standards of excellence and relevance, have been remarkable in their abilities, in their skills, and especially in their steadfast commitment to the ideals and goals of CCL. ”
Indeed, our public education system does not want the citizens of Canada, to determined their own future when it comes to education. If anything, they want to determine our futures over all things education. If I have left it to those who dwell in the public education system, my youngest would not have a future, bright with promise, nor have the skills to determine her own pathway as an adult.
Thus, we do need a federal agency in education.
Perhaps we could develop a mission statement that would develop a watchdog agency-
Sure,a federal watchdog agency would be nice but for the agency to be effective it needs more than lofty goals and money-
Right now there is a national agency that has been developed to analyze why First Nations schools are so ineffective and fail to develop so few high school graduates-mission ,goal and recommendations-
Problem,an attempt to improve it.
Mostly we waffle in edubabble and bicker and there are thousands of non profits that get noney from our government both federally and provincially with wobbly goals and mission statements..
We need to do better or it`s all commentary,very expensive commentary.
NO.
Let’s be accurate and not stereotype/falsely label!
I have been around enough and have met folks from a number of provincial and state departments of education. I even turned down a job at a provincial ministry. Public service is at the discretion of our publicly-elected representatives who work under a terrible system called, democracy- terrible but still better than any alternative i know of.
This is not the thread for political science 101.I’lI stand by my previous post.
“Name calling does not change things for the better!”
Our energies would be more productive if we lobbied the council of ministers of education or the feds to reinstate the CCL
Please tell me what some of their goals would be in their mission statement-
Don`t you want more than rhetoric-after all,education is not art-it is the achievement of incremental knowledge so one can have a productive life.
Debate is a skill honed from a profound knowledge base-after we can debate our view????
Are you currently lobbying them John?
Could you tell me what possible and real benefits to students would emerge if only we had a CCL in place.
Let’s not label, let’s get real and that means that even at that level the CCL needs to be accountable to what matters most – those students.
Let’s hear your ideas.
IMHO the best answer is boarding school Mon-Fri but no matter what you do rural parents don’t like it. The bus ride is too long, the school is too small, the teachers are not subject specialists, and on and on yet they won’t merge catholic-public-English and French in Wawa or other towns.
I keep challenging people to show THEIR solution in areas of small and declining schools. Crickets chirping…..
We have presented the solutions, although eschewed by the upper levels of the public education as well as by our so-called education leaders, because it does not work for their best interests. However, boarding schools for rural students, is one idea that is only held by the most rabid form of educrats. Solutions Doug, are already there in the provinces of NL and Alberta, and in part but just a very small part, in B.C. It never ceases to amazed me, how urbanites such as Doug, seem to think that other people in other regions of Canada, want the same things, hold the same values, as the urbanites, when it comes to education. Boarding schools run by the public education, will certainly turned into the horrible native residential schools. It will just be a newer version for the 21st century. A good thing, that our Constitution protects the people from ideas such as public boarding schools, (aka native residential schools), since it would indeed prevent people from determining their own future. Much like the old communist USSR, and state schools, or the native residential schools in Canada.
Let’s be accurate and not stereotype/falsely label!
______________________________________________________
So what do you suggest as a “term” to define the incompetent educational bureaucrats?
I keep challenging people to show THEIR solution in areas of small and declining schools. Crickets chirping…..
____________________________________________________
You’re the only one hearing the crickets.
No Excuses model, Too Expensive more of everything.
http://shankerblog.org/?p=3941
So the solution Andrew for small and declining rural schools is your usual mantra of “better management” . Ya right.
And yours is ever-worsening management.
Doug’s talk:
Ever larger schools and shutting down small schools… even to the extent of breaking up families and communities with boarding schools.
Doug’s walk:
Making money from an private, elite, exclusive SMALL SCHOOL for wealthy Chinese.
why not have a productive talk rather than a constant argument with Doug-CCL is about more than this-an opportunity to look at big picture solutions and enhancement of education in Canada-a crossroad if you will.
Paul, do you have any idea what will happen to all the research, documents, archives, etc. from CCL?
The web site will continue to be operated, with all of the research, documents and archives.
“Until such a decision by the federal government is forthcoming, CCL will therefore curtail its activities further. However, it will not close its doors or dissolve its non-profit corporation. As a former CEO for eight years at the Council of Ministers of Education of Canada, I am fully aware of the obstacles, driven by parochialism, defensiveness, complacency and inertia, that would inhibit the future creation of a similar national instrument as CCL. For this reason, it seems to me paramount that CCL remain open and ready to spring into more robust life when citizens demand it.
In the interim, these are the key changes that will occur at CCL:
•Its voluntary Board, composed of distinguished Canadians strongly committed to the future of CCL and of lifelong learning, remains intact, and will continue to provide governance;
•I will continue as President and CEO on a voluntary basis, while also undertaking other professional activities. Beginning in mid-October 2010, I will be working on a European project, but reachable through the following coordinates: 50 Laurier Avenue East, Suite 108, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 1H7 (Telephone: 613.569.7600);
•CCL will be situated on the campus of the University of Ottawa, at 50 Laurier Avenue East. We will be supported by Caroline Liguori as full-time coordinator;
•The CCL website, together with its large and important data and information base, will be preserved, maintained and refreshed;
•There will be monthly targeted reports, analyses or commentaries published on the CCL website, supplemented by references to, and summaries of, related recent work by CCL. However, until such time as federal financial support resumes, there will be no further research programs or large national reports on learning. (The notable exception will be a much-anticipated monograph on PSE, now in preparation, detailing how a trans-Canadian post-secondary agenda and system could be established, including roles and responsibilities);
•There will be regular contributions to the CEO’s corner of the website, on which I will be providing frank assessments of challenges and issues broadly related to learning;
•I and senior colleagues, also working on a voluntary basis, will be available as in the past to respond to media inquiries on learning conditions and issues in Canada; and
•CCL intends to reserve its remaining core financial resources for these purposes for a period of years—sufficiently long to allow for a change in political and economic conditions that might make possible restoration of government funding.
CCL will also consider undertaking, on request and under contract, specific and entirely self-funding projects in the learning field that meet the clear criteria set out by its Board and CEO. Such projects must closely reflect the vision and remit of the Council. Although its remunerated staff has been depleted, CCL maintains an extensive network of contacts and experts capable of carrying out any such project that it endorses and that are externally funded. ”
http://www.ccl-cca.ca/CCL/AboutCCL/PresidentCEO/20101005TheFuture.html
Thanks, Nancy.
Jo-Anne Gross
why not have a productive talk rather than a constant argument with Doug-CCL is about more than this-an opportunity to look at big picture solutions and enhancement of education in Canada-a crossroad if you will.
It is your friends the Tories that want to shut it down. In their mind, to liberal, + education is provincial.
Wrong Doug, it was the silence of those within the education field that allow CCL’s funding to be cut. In particular the provincial unions, school boards, provincial ministries of education, education faculties, the provincial cabinets, the deans of colleges and universities, as well as the other education organizations and agencies. Did they not have the political capital and the power to stopped the defunding of CCL? You bet they did, but still did nothing as single entities, or as a collective. From the search that I undertook this morning, it is apparent they did nothing, except use the information from CCL to promote their pet theories or to be used as supportive evidence. No one spoke up for CCL and the valuable services that they rendered for the Canadian public, as well as shining a light on the dark recesses of the public education system.
Just a small example twisting the goals and information of CCL, to support whatever stance, and in this case, no standard testing.
“The standards-based approach is a linear Western mode of conceiving formal education, and it is antithetical to the holistic model of education based on a First Nations’ world view. As outlined in the Canadian Council on Learning report on the First Nations Model of Learning, teaching and learning have traditionally been home- and community-based, without a formal evaluation system; instead, this model relies on the existence of evidence that a comprehensive understanding of knowledge has been transferred.[3]”
http://www.cea-ace.ca/education-canada/article/meaning-%E2%80%9Csuccess%E2%80%9D-first-nations-schools
“Wrong Doug, it was the silence of those within the education field that allow CCL’s funding to be cut.”
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Spot on. Keep the public ignorant.
In their mind, to liberal, + education is provincial.
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I’ve not seen that anybody has suggested that the federal government should take over education.
Perhaps I missed it … or is this simply another attempt at a strawman?
Exactly,how would he know how I vote-I must say though,we are better off not engaging:)
“Could you tell me what possible and real benefits to students would emerge if only we had a CCL in place. ”
One benefit that I can see, if the CCL remains true to its own goals and vision, is a thoughtful authority on the very things that the public education system glosses over or outright dismissal. Such things as literacy, native education, boys versus girls learning, life long learning, and the many other things that the public education system uses as political footballs, to completing agendas and self-serving interests.
I change my search terms, and found a few criticisms about CCL, and how politicians have used CCL as a political tool. Another oddity, is seeing the CCL as a think tank, and therefore anything gleam from them is suspect.
“Last year, he said, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development wrote to Prime Minister Stephen Harper lauding the council’s work.
Finley’s spokesman, Ryan Sparrow, said in an e-mail that employers, workers and economists had all told the government “there is a need for better learning information that is more aligned with labour markets and takes into account international competitive challenges.” He said the government will focus on “the creation of an improved learning information system.”
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2010/01/08/12399471-qmi.html
Where was the collective of the public education system? Too busy? Perhaps the CCL did not fit into the politics of the public education system, but the OECD, thought otherwise.
Passing thoughts of an ex-politician in Quebec – “Federal initiatives
In addition to serving as provincial education minister, Reid was also appointed to a two-year term as chair of the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada in October 2003.[25] Reid was critical of the Canadian Council on Learning introduced by Jean Chrétien’s federal government, saying that its money would be better spent on provincial initiatives.[26]”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Reid
So perhaps we know where the Council of Ministers of Education Canada, stands – against the CCL from the beginning.
“how would he know how I vote”
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Probably based on the stereotype (he abhors stereotyping… allegedly) that the “reformers” are righties and “progressives” are lefties.
Makes sense:)to him that is.
Let me see now, the Federal Tory government is slashing the funding for CCL and that would be the fault of the provincial teachers unions. LOL.
It is getting cold here this week. I will have to blame those darn teachers unions. They did nothing to stop the cold weather.
Support for corporate education reform IS overwhelmingly right wing and opposition to it is left of centre for sure. Lets live in the real world
“Let me see now, the Federal Tory government is slashing the funding for CCL and that would be the fault of the provincial teachers unions. LOL.”
Nope. Nobody said that. Nowhere, nohow.
Thank you, Mr. Strawman.
“It is getting cold here this week. I will have to blame those darn teachers unions. They did nothing to stop the cold weather.”
If you say so. Nobody else thinks so… oh, another strawman.
“”
Nancy said exactly that.
show us Doug. She said nothing of the sort.
Wrong again, Doug. Here is what Nancy said:
“In particular the provincial unions, school boards, provincial ministries of education, education faculties, the provincial cabinets, the deans of colleges and universities, as well as the other education organizations and agencies. Did they not have the political capital and the power to stopped the defunding of CCL? You bet they did, but still did nothing as single entities, or as a collective.”
oh, sorry Andrew I should have read your response before posting my own. Hadn’t read that far yet.
While some are mourning the loss of the CCL no one has yet managed to tell us how education has improved one iota for students and their families because of its existence in the first place.
It may have been a nice idea at the time but why not build a better mousetrap?? Or, failing interest or an effective model, do without?
“oh, sorry Andrew I should have read your response before posting my own. Hadn’t read that far yet.”
Meh. Not to worry. All is well.
CCL does not make education policy. They have neither the mandate nor the power.
That those who DO have the mandate and the power sit on their collective thumbs is another issue – basically the issue we’re attempting to address here.
You think that the collective of the public education system would at least come to the CCL rescue in some manner. And so far, I have nothing except for the anonymous comments from individual teachers and others who work somewhere in the public education system. It leads me to believe that CCL and other such beasts are served as political footballs, to be used until they do not serve anybody’s hidden agenda. Not a comment from any of the top level educators, such as the OISE. The CCL represents a very good organization, standing at arms length from the education system, compared to the equivalent in the United States, tainted by all the politics and various members of the public education arms. Just today, I discovered another organization, formed by the deans of the education faculties across the world. It is the first time I ever heard of them, and I have 10 years of reading the LD files, especially the research. http://www.iarld.com/
“IARLD (International Academy for Research in Learning Disabilities) is an international professional organization dedicated to conducting and sharing research about individuals who have learning disabilities.
IARLD members come from many nations and represent:
•distinguished researchers,
•distinguished practitioner/clinicians,
•young researchers, and
•promising doctoral students”
A typical closed shop, frightened to have an independent review on any of the research that is produced. From what I have read, which is little, frightens me how their research might be the major influence in the public education systems dealing with LD and reading instruction/practices. With one researcher that I have been tracking, it is almost like hearing bits of Doug here and there, and some of the others within the education system, that LD students are not capable of being academics. There is some famous people that would object as well as couple of billionaires. but who are there compared to the people who hold the magic certificate of teacher.
Just another reason for a national agency for education. that can bring some common sense and encourage those who have closed shops in the public education system, to be open and encourage discussions that are to benefit the students’ education, and in the end achievement. Instead, there is fancy conferences, sipping wine and nibbling cheese. .
“Instead, there is fancy conferences, sipping wine and nibbling cheese.”
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You need to copyright that one. 😉
CCL is being killed by Tories.
“CCL is being killed by Tories.”
True. And with the silent assent of the educational “partners”.
The funding has been cut, but it still does not speak for those and the collective whole of the public education system, for not speaking up for the CCL. I am sure that the funding cut to CCL did not happen in a vacuum, and when the announcement to cut funding occurred, the collective whole of the public education still did nothing. What is not a coincidence, is the increase of research monies to education faculties, and other public education researchers and their organizations, having extra funding. Follow the money Doug, and in this case, the funding of CCL, and the cut to CCL funding, the public money did not leave the public education system. It was redirected to other public education organizations.
CCL is being killed by the blessings of the whole collective of the public education system, for various reasons, to served their own interests. To create more opportunities, of questionable conferences, sipping wine and nibbling cheese, to present questionable research.
Here is another example where both sides, are wheeling and dealing to serve their own best interests, and those who work within the public education system show their true colours of political gamesmanship, and unprincipled stances that are no different than the other side. Unions can add another dark star, to their promotion of causes, that in the end serves not the students, but the union’s best interests. Slightly off topic, but it certainly shows how the top levels along with the education arms, are quite willing to use students as political footballs, even in times of great disasters.
http://www.truth-out.org/shock-doctrine-schooling-haiti-neoliberalism-richter-scale/1316205555
You cannot blame anyone except the Tories. They hate public education and everything it represents for equality of opportunity.
You cannot blame anyone except the Tories. They hate public education and everything it represents for equality of opportunity.
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Same ol’ Doug. It’s always somebody else’s fault. You must have been a politician in a past life.
Let me see now, someone cut the funding for CCL. Who was that? Oh ya that was the Federal Tories. Lets blame someone else LOL. What a joke.
While you and your ilk remained silent and let them do it.
Doug, you’re like the chap who doesn’t bother to vote and then gripes about the governments we get.
Below a series of links in two parts, showing the increases in grants to other federal organizations, that corresponds to the cuts in CCL and other research agencies such as the Canadian Language and Literacy Research Council that ended in 2010. http://www.cllrnet.ca/about
Another example, where not the individual parts or the collective whole actively campaign to stopped the cuts. And in fact not a word on their part, just like now, not a word on the public education system, to defend and lobby for CCL.
Than why would they, when the Canadian Language and Literacy Research Council, brought research to the ordinary Canadian’s dinner table, and usually an eye opener regarding research based on the science, are not being practiced in today’s K to 12 education system.
“Moreover, the goal of the Encyclopedia is to bring the best international research on language and literacy development to Canada. Thus, in addition to the many expert Canadian researchers contributing to the Encyclopedia, an increasing number of researchers from other countries are becoming involved in this project, including researchers from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Finland, New Zealand, Germany, Israel, China, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates.”
http://literacyencyclopedia.ca/index.php?fa=home.show
Or the important knowledge, and the reasons why telling ordinary people, what are the best strategies for your children and learning. And they do not used the SEC factors to explain failure, like the public K to 12 education system, and than proceed to used the watered down approaches that are not effective to remediate the learning weaknesses of children. The Canadian Public Education System, can stand proud to use their weight as a collective whole, to close down the Canadian Language and Literacy Research Council Network, because it was not in their best interests.
A paper,” Prepared by Helen McKenzie Political and Social Affairs Division
May 1994″ http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection-R/LoPBdP/BP/bp386-e.htm
More than likely, another paper sitting on dusty shelves within the education system, like other federal reports questioning the quality of public education.
In the paper, another organization that went the way of the do-do bird, “The Economic Council of Canada is a former Crown corporation that was owned by the Government of Canada and was established in 1963 under the Economic Council of Canada Act.
When the Council made recommendations on policy, it did so on the basis of an internal consensus of its membership that the analysis underpinning the policy advice was valid and that the policy prescription followed from this analysis. To this, its role was to conduct a wide range of economic and policy research for the federal government.
The first chairman was John James Deutsch. Sylvia Ostry, Arthur J. R. Smith, and David W. Slater were also former chairmen. The Council was disbanded in 1992 by Brian Mulroney, Prime Minister of Canada after it published a report suggesting that the separation of Quebec from Canada might not have the dire consequences that Mulroney’s government maintained it would have.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_Council_of_Canada
“In its 1992 study, “Education and Training in Canada,” the Economic Council of Canada concluded that many young Canadians are not well served by their education system and that the 70% of school leavers who do not go on to university lack pragmatic technical and vocational programs to prepare them for the workforce. Canada’s school system does not have non-academic, vocational programs as an optional study path or an appropriate strategy to help students to make a successful transition from school to the workplace.” http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection-R/LoPBdP/BP/bp386-e.htm
And the Public Education system stood by, and probably clapped their hands over the demise of the Economic Council of Canada because it didn’t like the 1992 report, and other reports showing the questionable quality of education being received by students. Note in the link above, things have not change much, and is a coincidence that when this report came out, the public education systems across Canada, was dismantling the technical and vocational high school programs with the cooperation of all the teachers unions, and other arms of the system. In its replacement, watered down technical and vocational courses, that requires three times as much remediation and upgrading in skills at the college level. That is, if the school district is not pushing the union agenda of social equity and feel good courses, that does nothing for the essential skills needed to navigate in this world.
Here is the new kid on the block being funded through private and public monies. The Canadian Foundation for Economic Education
Not quite as new, since it has been around since 1974, but that one is a keeper, since it offers no threat to the Canadian Public Education systems.
http://www.cfee.org/cgi-bin/go.cgi?lang=en&file=/en/members.shtml
Increases in grants, and where did the decreases in grants happen? Of course dealing with education of students, impacting them in a negative way.
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Click to access NSERC-QFR-June2011-eng.pdf
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Click to access 2011-12_1quarter_finalE.pdf
Sure the powers to be within the education systems lined up, because it essentially is R and D grants that universities and in part colleges are the biggest benefactors. Did they speak up for the students, who would be on the loosing end of scholarships, grants, and other funding directly related to the education of students? No, but they did used it as another political football to serve their best interests. And meanwhile, tuition is rising every year, scholarships are drying up of the government kind, and students are faced with increasing debts after post-secondary, and faced with bleak job markets. Or certainly, not the kind that the lower parts of the public education system promotes. Increase your education levels, and get a better paying job. Social mobility is the key, to a prosperous future, and other such dribble from the unions, and other like-minded educrats whose only interests is to maintain their power and position to served their best interests.
After all, the public education system of Canada, has done their job in eliminating all threats from within the different levels of governments that do not represent the best interests of the public education system. Canadian Council for Learning was the last one, but I wonder who is next on the hit parade within the public education system. Could it be the Special Olympics Association? Or will it be the Literacy Councils or the National Learning Disability Association? Or will they have their guns out for the The Autism Society? All organizations that have formed partnerships with the public education system, and at the same time, have criticized the public education for various valid reasons.
Maybe it is time to join the demonstrations that are spreading sccross the world?
Watch it happen, Andrew and in particular United States. Andrew, does your children or grandchildren have the same opportunities as you did when you were young? What is laughable, is the political parties, the public institutions funded by public tax dollars,as well as good many of the other agencies being funded partially by tax dollars, are not commenting or holding the line of the status-quo.
“This country is effectively bankrupting a generation before they even get to their first job interview,” Dubois said at a news conference in Ottawa, standing alongside a digital counter showing the total student debt in Canada.”
Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/education/Student+loan+program+nears+funding+limit/5565866/story.html#ixzz1bFhtIjyq
One of the many reasons why there is Occupy protests across the world. A big part as the protests continue in the months to come, are the policies of governments, and how the ordinary taxpayer pays the price and the lack of accountability found in government, across all departments. At the moment, individual unemployed newly minted teachers, because the market has a over supply of teachers to the number of students. Reading the unions sites, apparently we need a whole lot more teachers for the demand.But than one turns on the radio, only to hear that teachers are piling on more debt, and returning to university or college, for a new career, in the hopes of obtaining a job. At the moment that math and science graduates, have a much brighter future, but even here it has turned into a crap shoot, depending on government and business policies of the day.
from today’s Toronto Sun
http://www.torontosun.com/2011/10/18/competing-globally
“Meanwhile Cappon is embarking on a 10-city “legacy tour” to talk about CCL’s work, including this report. Once CCL is put to bed, he’s off to Europe — to help some of its well-heeled foundations put into motion the sort of work our government once funded.”
The work that was once funded by our federal government, are the key words. If one went on the European education sites, the reports coming from Canada will be of the provincial kind. All speaking a babble of incoherent policies, and where the education faculties especially the ones from Ontario, are guiding education policy speaking on behalf of Canada. They have no right, when the the number of low literacy adults are increasing as the years roll by, or the number of students taking remediation in the 3 Rs at the post-secondary level, or the poor policies regarding SE children across this country, and where the odds are in favour, that a SE student, will never have their learning weaknesses remediated through the public education system, but through the private tutoring and private schools. But they don’t tell parents that one in the public education system.
“Andrew, does your children or grandchildren have the same opportunities as you did when you were young?”
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Our 4 boys are pretty well squared away.
We have 2 grandkids. One I’m not worried about at all. The other is an entirely different matter.
We already know what works. One example.
http://erstrategies.org/blog/post/preschool_wars/#When:14:11:18Z
Thank you posting Moira MacDonald’s Toronto Sun column, Catherine. It’s a well-considered piece and pertinent to our discussion:
http://www.torontosun.com/2011/10/18/competing-globally
What I like about the column is its clarity. Moira MacDonald starts by posing the critical question, Should Canada have national standards for education?, and then points out how important they are to remaining globally competitive.
For those of our contributors, like me, who find some of the Sun News commentaries off-the wall, this article is refreshing on at least two counts. Firstly, it offers a balanced assessment of Cappon and the CCL legacy, pointing out a few of the shortcomings. Most importantly,the article criticizes a Stephen Harper government decision, recognizing that ideological conservatives can let partisanship get the better of them.
Going back over his career, Dr. Paul Cappon has always been a very erudite, deceptively bureaucratic-looking education reformer. Since the origins of the Ontario educational standards movement in 1991, he’s been there, working in mysterious ways as Chair of the Council of Ministers of Education, then as head of CCL. So far, no one here has disputed my claim that it was Dr. Cappon, aided by Dennis Raphael, who established the “National Student Indicators” project and got us back into international testing. Perhaps because, like Barack Obama, they are not small-c conservatives.
Might I be forgiven for offering a personal reflection? It has always surprised me that, over the years, we did not take fuller advantage of Dr. Cappon and his access to decision makers. Perhaps it’s just that he and most dedicated school standards crusaders simply inhabit different worlds. Waging a protracted “Education War” for public accountability calls for a combination of strategies, including cocktail diplomacy as well as direct action. If Dr. Cappon and CCL go down and leave a void, we may be reduced to throwing well-directed stones at the durable fortress of Canadian public education.
Here’s the thing for me. Cappon’s now on his “10 city legacy” tour. How can CCL have a legacy when for the most part very few knew of its very existence or can point to what that “legacy” has accomplished that saw the betterment of education for students at a National level?
If we can point to anything that has come out of CCL that is relevant to the folks that matter most, the students, there families, and those individual classroom teachers who MIGHT be fighting this had they even known about it themselves….well, then it can earn a “legacy” distinction I guess.
Why would the average student, parent or educator ever have any reason to become familiar with Dr. Cappon and his work? Or that of the CCL?
If it’s not something they relate to or is pointed out to them, there is nothing to support and little fight when taxpayer’s money runs dry.
Catharine, you are right to point that out. The CCL was never used by the public education system, to form education policy and in the end to benefit students, and perhaps the taxpayers. All I ever could find, is quotes from CCL by the public education arms, to support their stances, or their cheap politics. The literacy data, was used to create more economic activities for profit, rather than sorting out the everyday real problems that people have with literacy. I was standing at the cashier at the grocery store, and across the way, the pharmacy counter stood with a sign, pointing – Your pharmacist is your health provider. In this province, the latest is the pharmacist by law, to read to the customer everything that is on the paper concerning the drug. A service that ends up costing me and you more for drugs, to service the proportion of the population that has difficulty in reading. Instead of fixing it for once and for all, where health, education and the governments get together and end low literacy for the next future generation. No, there is too much money to be made off the education weaknesses and the 3 Rs of people.
No, there is nothing to support and little fight when taxpayer’s money runs dry. Nor is there any support to make noise on the half-truths or out right lies, such as Doug’s. “The USA actually has a surplus of scientists and engineers and quite a few engineers are unemployed. Part of the reason is outsourcing of technical high end work to places like India where it is done much more cheaply today.” False, because the scientists and engineers are coming to North America, because there is not enough of the graduates in the sciences, maths and computer fields. As for jobs being outsource to other countries, the manufacturing jobs, and secondary processing of raw materials. Doug, follow the trial regarding your next fish dinner at home, the only thing made in Canada is the box, and you leaving one hell of a carbon trace, as well as a dent in your pocketbook. Meanwhile the nation’s fishery as well as the forestry, no jobs and no job future at all under the globalized umbrella. But some of the teachers’ pension fund, is supporting such globalized investments to pump up the padded pensions of teachers.
Or this gem, that is common among the educrats – ” Notwithstanding this, it is better to educate more people to higher levels than to do otherwise. There ARE other reasons for higher general education other than human capital formation although HCF is very important. Higher levels of education are strongly related to lower social costs, greater human satisfaction and happiness, improved health, longer life, greater equity, improved citizenship and democratic development,”
Occupy protesters are a testament to what jobs, and the jobs that are available. Below is a link with a sign of a protester, that says it all. He should have gone into the sciences and maths fields, because there is better odds landing a job within your field. There is not enough of them in North America, and that is if you want to take the post secondary route.
http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/
As for the trades, that is entirely a different story filled with betrayal of the public education, removing the traditional courses where students are prepared to enter into the trades. No, they are far too busy taking mickey mouse courses, on studying social justice through history and social studies, in the theory that empowering students with this knowledge, will lead to greater social mobility and fairness in society and the work place. Tell that one to the recently fired young construction worker, who was fired because they did not know their basic arithmetic in order to do the job. Or the student who wants to enter the auto mechanic’s field, only to discovered he will have to picked up senior high school courses that are academic or higher, or have to retake them over, to get a better grade than 65 %.
As for parents, unless we go looking for the information, the last place that will informed parents is the public education system at any stage of schooling. Meanwhile the public education system, and the upper levels are on auto-pilot ignoring the warnings of CCL and other like organizations. And probably clapping their hands, each one falls including the students that struggle in real life, after grade 12. Just more fodder and supporting anecdotes to match their sloppy, pie in the sky theories, and reinforce the other myth, that only teachers with certificates should be in the classroom.
I also found Moira’s piece useful. We communicate fairly regularly. Notice she did point out the possible self serving nature of the CCL position.
To be quite frank, there IS a relationship between education and international competitiveness but it is not a direct relationship. The USA actually has a surplus of scientists and engineers and quite a few engineers are unemployed. Part of the reason is outsourcing of technical high end work to places like India where it is done much more cheaply today.
There is also a ceiling on the number of high tech jobs required that does not necessarily expend just because the graduates increase.
Notwithstanding this, it is better to educate more people to higher levels than to do otherwise. There ARE other reasons for higher general education other than human capital formation although HCF is very important. Higher levels of education are strongly related to lower social costs, greater human satisfaction and happiness, improved health, longer life, greater equity, improved citizenship and democratic development,
One former TBE director was fond of saying, “the purpose of public education is to make people publically useful and privately happy.” Not bad.
“At the moment that math and science graduates, have a much brighter future, but even here it has turned into a crap shoot, depending on government and business policies of the day.”
It’s more cheap politics than policy, Nancy.
“As for parents, unless we go looking for the information, the last place that will informed parents is the public education system at any stage of schooling.”
Re: CCL – if the system were truly behind it at the provincial level parents would be getting a steady diet of the reasons behind their support…or not.
If you’ve been a parent in the system or worked on a school council you’ve likely had first hand knowledge and experience about how school boards, government and administrations saturate meetings with the work of OISE or any other of the anointed “experts”. Recycling top-down driven ideas, studies etc. is now what boards in Ontario are all about….and closing rural schools.
Seems to me that if CCL was at all worthy of support its legacy and relevance would have wound its way to the bottom of the education fish tank. That didn’t happen…and isn’t happening that I can tell.
What’s the song that goes “You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone”….well in the case of CCL we don’t know what he had because to the folks on the ground it didn’t matter to them that we had it….or not.
Off-topic all together – I am NOT encouraged by Dalton McGuinty’s choice for the new education minister AT ALL. Laurel Broten (sp) – the woman who brought our kids “FLICK OFF” and who didn’t last long in the Environment portfolio.
I’m not encouraged eiher LOL.
No wonder Doug is not encouraged. I just found out something that I am absolutely amazed at. Ontario does not keep their own up to date stats on the numbers in living below poverty, low-income, and other important indicators that impacts daily lives of Ontarians. If little old Newfoundland can, as well as Alberta, using present day technology, than Broten on the Agenda a few months back, would not be explaining why the ministry of youth and children, do not know the exact number of children living at the poverty level, since Canada stats are a couple of years behind. Not much hope in the education files, if her ministry of youth and children, is any indication and the plans formulated to reduced poverty in Ontario. How can any government department start targeted programs without knowing the numbers, and where the numbers are located?
“Seems to me that if CCL was at all worthy of support its legacy and relevance would have wound its way to the bottom of the education fish tank. That didn’t happen…and isn’t happening that I can tell.”
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It can’t happen when those at the bottom on the pile (classroom teachers, parents and students) have no voice.
oops make that “we don’t know what we had because to the folks on the ground…..
Actually I believe CCL will be missed.
how will we be able to tell?
“How can any government department start targeted programs without knowing the numbers, and where the numbers are located?”
Easily done when it’s all window dressing.
Just plain bad planning, as well as money being spent going into a dark hole. If the small local providers of the small non-profits, located in any town, such as the Food Banks, did not have reliable figures, than it would be impossible to estimate the needs of the local population, much less how much food needs to be collected. In my own province, the stats collected by the government, is completely open to the public. Want to know about the percentages of income, or the number of home owners vs renters, or the number of households with Internet services, or the level of education in the local communities and all kinds of other information that is ideal for the local businesses, the town councils, to the local sports teams. The stats can go region as well as provincial. Having up-to-date stats, can give the province flexibility in making adjustments for programs, and as well alert the providers of some social services such as the drug coverage program, that the government needs to readjust their funding. Last year, the government was alerted to a dropped in the number of low-income people not qualifying for drug coverage, because the increases in the minimum wage put them just beyond the cut-off point. The government apologized and readjusted the cut-off amount. For Ontario, they should be ashame of themselves for not being better caretakers of the public purse, as well as not having their own stats to depend on, rather than using StatsCanada as they sole go to guy for stats.
The Libs funded CCL and ignored it and the Cons ignored it and defunded it.
Not much difference, eh?
And we are partially to blame with our apathy.
Why didn`t the CCL ever say anything as specific as this?
Click to access 2-THE-RIGHT-TO-READ-AND-THE-RESPONSIBILITY-TO-TEACH.pdf
This sets the tone for improvement-otherwise it`s just research that doesn`t make it on the information highway and becomes virtually useless.
Someone mentioned the dark hole of research money.
We need an organization that represents the challenging of the status quo-and represents the desire to have everyone honouring research.
There was a good article this am in the Post or the Globe mentioning the deterioration of the Undergrad,the obsession Professors have in doing research rather than teaching and how the Undergrad students have been left to flounder!
These are the statements that lead to improvement if anyone is listening-the lecture was by a Dean of a Canadian University-(retired)-a slow deterioration,like Wall Street and eventually we wake up and we have a complicated mess that will take 20 years to undo.
Michael Valpy-where are you-ethics missing in the education of our youth…
Those of us who care are called reformers and the fringe..
The Dougs are the supposed voice of reason!
In the GlobeCampus, an article called CCL Has Been Dead Man Walking For Years. It explains the politics behind the formation of CCL.
http://www.globecampus.ca/blogs/eye-higher-ed/2010/01/15/ccl-has-been-dead-man-walking-years/
Perhaps CCL was neutered from the get-go, because of the agendas within the education systems of Canada, and the turf wars between provinces and the feds.
If we want to talk clusters of empirical views,all we need to do is count Universities,non profits and school boards-
Uncoordinated narcissism-
Research doesn`t matter to any of them,that`s why CCL doesn`t really matter,even if they had something important to say.
I have tried for a few years,naturally eventually you quit and see the light,to guide the LDAC and LDAO to state the research on Reading and what creates and exacerbates the outcomes of these children-no way-vague wins-
Do any of them even know to recommend phonemic awareness training and explicit systematic multisensory instruction/
Just go to the odd little conference they have-you want to cry!
CCL did research and offered that research to all.
If educators and their fellow travellers don’t use those tools that are offered one can hardly blame the CCL.
Give one carpenter a handsaw and another one a power saw and see which one is more productive. It’s pretty much the same thing.
The GlobeCampus article had valid points, that it was a dead man walking from the beginning. Dead man walking, like the organizations Joanne has mentioned, the non-profits. Specifically the non-profits that deals with children’s learning. They are dead men walking as well, because the public education system has not really welcome them into their arms, and very much like CCL, who was not welcome either. Andrew used the handsaw and power saw analogy, and it can be compared to the public education system and the education organizations that stand outside of the public education system. It is where Canada stands in dark contrast with the rest of the world, and where the United States public education system, despite the politics, welcomes collaboration with all education organizations. In the United States, my kid would have access, and mostly free access to the materials at the Blind Institute as well as several national organizations dealing with literacy and LD. But not in Canada, they all work in their separate silos, and when it comes to LD children, money is the key to access, regardless if one has a diagnosed LD or dyslexia. From the very beginning, I heard it from both sides, dyslexia is an education problem, but always with the rejoinder of, but it can’t be fixed. According to the research, it can be fixed, and for the milder versions, dyslexia can be prevented.
As Joanne has stated, “Uncoordinated narcissism-
Research doesn`t matter to any of them,that`s why CCL doesn`t really matter,even if they had something important to say.” DItto for the learning disability organizations, the autism societies, and all the other organizations dealing with some aspect of educating children and their learning. Not willing to go the extra mile, and confront the public education, or even collaborate with school boards, explaining the science and their position.
I had to go to the United States sites for my knowledge, and even someone to chat with, on the trails and tribulations of having a LD child, and more so dealing with the schools and school boards. I welcome the CCL, but the information was of little help in my battle with the school board, but the information of CCL could have been a great help to school boards, and schools, if they had actual used the information to change to more effective literacy and numeracy programs.
Below is another example from United States, of collaboration and the use of ordinary citizens in their schools. In Canada, any successful adult dyslexic, lives in the closet because none of them wants to deals with the misinformed adults. They had their fill while going to school, and by the end of grade 12, in their best interests, they remain in the closet.
“The Lexington School launched The Learning Center last fall as a “school-within-a-school” at its facilities on Lane Allen Road. The program began largely through encouragement from Brutus Clay, a real estate executive and Lexington School board member who has struggled with dyslexia.
The were 16 students the first year. Now enrollment is up to 28 in first through eighth grades, and that includes two youngsters whose families moved to Lexington from New Jersey and Memphis so their children could attend.”
Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2011/10/17/1923881/lexington-schools-learning-center.html#ixzz1bSoEssHi
In Canada, no collaboration. They are all afraid they might learn something, in the same way they might learn reviewing the data and information on CCL.
They don’t want to learn.
If they do they run out of excuses for screwing up our kids.
That`s why a watchdog agency is required-high school standardized exams,analyses of schools that don`t do their jobs and a close eye on K-3 results like the grade 4 exam in the U.S.,something that encourages a “do better process annually”,we certainly know it won`t happen any other way.
The First Nations Student Success Grant has an effectiveness meter attached to it,if the data shows there is no improvement every few years,the second and third waves of funding are not guaranteed,that`s the Feds.
Paul Cappon is correct,we need a Federal agency,but of a different tone and a different flavour.Just doing research doesn`t cut it,we know that no one seems to attach practice to research in education..as dismayed as I constantly am,that`s the daily lesson.
“Paul Cappon is correct,we need a Federal agency,but of a different tone and a different flavour. Just doing research doesn`t cut it,we know that no one seems to attach practice to research in education..as dismayed as I constantly am. That`s the daily lesson.”
Joanne is absolutely on the right track, where research must meet practice in today’s schools. In my last post, the link of the school within a school……
“The Learning Center program relies on what is called the Orton-Gillingham method of treating dyslexia. It includes lots of sophisticated use of what educators call “multisensory structured language” instruction, plus something as simple as old-fashioned cursive writing.
Students often begin their day with cursive drills that, Childers says, helps not only promote better handwriting, but helps with reading recognition, as well.
“It seems that just being able to keep the pencil on the page, rather than picking it up and putting it down over and over, helps them form letters and makes writing easier for them,” she said.
Students in the program also work daily on prefixes and suffixes — such as re-, pre- and -ing — saying and spelling them, stating their meanings, and physically tracing them out. The repeated drills thus combine visual, auditory and kinesthetic or tactile components, which is what multisensory structured learning is all about.
Childers says children with dyslexia need many repetitions to make the information stick.
“Repetition is really a key for these kids,” she said. “Scientific research has shown that repeated drills actually stimulate new connections in the brains of dyslexic children.”
Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2011/10/17/1923881/lexington-schools-learning-center.html#ixzz1bW2Vs8g5
Cursive writing, the actual act of writing on paper, and repetition both stimulate new connections in the brains of all children, and not just the dyslexics. Last week, at the IEP meeting, the high school teacher could have blown me way, because she knew the benefits of writing with a pen and paper, as well as the repetition. Yet, we both note that practices such as cursive writing, are no longer the norm, as well as other practices such as spelling, grammar, and other crucial basics, that stimulates new connections in the brain. What is being practiced inside the typical public school, is non-multisensory structured learning and more so at the primary level. If multisensory learning existed at the schools, boys achievement will rise accordingly, and match the girls, because this is what boys need, than the current learning style format. I have a child, who is logical in her learning style, but to get to this strength, she needs to learn using multisensory learning methods. Just targeting one specific learning style, will do little for making new connections in the brain, and improving cognitive processes.
The CCL tells us the final outcomes of students at the national level, where the number of low-literacy is increasing at a steady pace, slow but steady. What CCL could be more than the sum of the final outcomes, is connecting the research of the researchers that lie outside the public education system, and have important ramifications in learning at all stages in life. Yet, our education faculties, as well as the education ministries eschew reports and research from researchers that lie outside their domain. If one does a search on multisensory learning, the majority of research lies outside of the public education system, and very little from within the public education structure. Unless one counts the water down research, either disproving outside researchers, or using the research, to create new reforms to repeat the same repetitive patterns of low achievement. If anything, the public education system can be counted on for being very predictable, as one researcher explained to me 5 years ago. Predictable from this researcher, is that the studies and research being conducted in Canada, are not just seen in journals and a few newspaper articles, but the research is sent to the national and provincial levels, where ever the implications of the research should go to. In the public education system, the outside research especially in reading and numeracy sit on the dusty shelves, unread and never filtered down to the lower levels. Why? The majority of reading and numeracy research is telling the public education system and their practices are all wrong.
Or this little example of ongoing research in the heart of Toronto – “My research program is geared to the development of a unified theory of brain operation that emphasizes the integrative capacity of the brain. One tenet of the theory is that cognitive operations emerge from the interactions between brain areas rather than being the sole responsibility of single regions. The program has two related arms: one to do with technical developments to explore brain integration, and the other with the collection of experimental evidence for this integration. This second arm uses modern brain imaging methods to explore the neural networks in human learning. One surprising outcome of this work has been the profound involvement of sensory processing regions of the brain in rather complex cognitive operations. This suggests that human cognition involves the active interaction among brain regions that processes specific sensory information (e.g., visual, auditory) and the mediating areas, such as prefrontal cortex and medial temporal lobes.”
http://research.baycrest.org/rmcintosh
If testing actually made any difference, the USA would be #1 in the world but it is #17. No testing Finland is #1. Adding more speedometers and tachometers to and old car that has not had a tune up or an oil change in decades does nothing to improve quality.
To improve quality you actually have to improve quality which in the USA means much higher pay for teachers, much higher marks and degrees to enter teaching, more professional development, smaller classes, earlier start to school, longer days, tutorial summers, less tracking, and lower costs for post secondary.
When Americans face the true cost of improvement they always blink and go searching for the next silver bullet. This quest always ends in failure.
Interesting article.
http://asiasociety.org/education/learning-world/what-accounts-finlands-high-student-achievement-rate
Statistics from Finland.
Click to access IND_Finland.pdf
Looks like even the very reluctant Americans are finally understanding that the public sector needs to move into ECE in a big way to make sure that the quality is improved and that it is free or very cheap.
http://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/states-sign-up-to-race-to-the-top-early-learning-challenge/
Andrew Gilmour
Interesting article.
http://asiasociety.org/education/learning-world/what-accounts-finlands-high-student-achievement-rate
That is indeed an interesting article but many date the 1970’s when the Finnish government and industry realized that Finland could no longer afford to be a nation of lumberjacks and needed to become Nokia nation. A major shift took place granted build on a very long term socialist view that we educate “everybody”. It has paid off and proves without any doubt to the OECD that highly educated and trained teachers highly respected by the population and no standardized testing is the key to rapid and eqitable progress.
The USA refuses to look at this because it debunks the American befief that everything private is good while everything public is bad. Wither the USA.
Finland had no choice, since they do not have natural resources to rely on Doug. Plus being a relatively small country in geography size, Given their relative small size, the natural niche for them was in high tech, and to specialized. As for their political system, it was a natural offshoot after WWII to adopt socialized policies to invest in their people, and in turn improving the economy after being ripped apart in WWII. Unlike Canada and United States, who are blessed with an abundance of natural resources, and their countries were not torn apart by WWII. WWII help Canada and United States to recover from the depression of the 1930s, and after WWII, both countries had economies that developed all parts of the economy, and were not force to specialized.
The model of Finland and its teachers cannot be copied, for countries like United States and Canada. For many different reasons, but the most important one, It would cause a severe shortage of teachers in areas just beyond the urban boundaries. Unless one adopts the structure in Finland, where the local communities are in charge of hiring, and firing of the teachers. The teachers are in charge of the curriculum and teaching practices. Fat chance that would happen in either country, and where the unions would fight tooth and nail to stopped that from happening. So just replacing teachers with teachers with more education, will not effect achievement at all.
By the way Doug, Finland was never known to be a land of lumberjacks. That title goes to Canada, and lumberjacks would take offense to your words. Be thankful for them Doug, that as a nation the cities of Canada would be in sad shape. Standardized testing became the norm, because of the final outcomes after 12 years of schooling, a slow progression of dumbing the curriculum, due to the strangle hold of the special interests and unions within the public education system. The testing is the only way to know and confirmed what is happening on the ground, and the reality that tells a different story from the ones within the education system. In Europe, standardized testing may become a reality, especially and if they ever do, recover from their economic mess. Accountability has to come to the education system, and standardized testing is one element, out of many accountability measures. As for Canada and United States, parents are still asking the questions that many refuse to response, and if they do, the predicable excuses in all aspects of education.
Problem is that politicians/school trustees think only as far as the next election and educrats only think in terms of perpetuating their tenure… well, 99% of them, anyway. 😉
politician = democractic representitive chosen by the people
educrat = expert with many degrees and many years of experience
reformers = minority cranks who can’t find a majority to agree with them but are certain they are right and know more than anyone else. Ontario just said “not interested” to the only politician to offer phonics or even a hint of education reform style in the future.
reformers don’t get the idea that their ideas are unpopular. They are convinced that it is a conspiracy of the media the unions, the educrats and the blob to keep these good ideas out of the limelight.
I would love Ontarians to have a series of referrendum votes on 1) vouchers, 2) catholic schools 3) other religious schools, 4) education cutbacks and class sizes.
We could settle these issues for a 20 year period. I see polling at Vector and others all the time and I am convinced that reformers would not only lose, they would lose badly.
When will you stop contradicting yourself every time you post?
You constantly advocate change while refusing to change anything.
On the other hand, the majority of the “reformers” only want changes in one direction at the expense of other valid improvements.
I am an advocate of radical CHANGE
1) Much smaller classes
2) Much earlier and more comprehensive ECE/ELP
3) Much more support staff
4) Much higher educational demands for teachers
5) Much les streaming-tracking
6) Preservation of small schools through community use.
7) Cut and eventual elimination of tuition fees
8) High quality summer and after school programs
Hardly the status quo, radical reform but guess what “reformers” don’t support any of this because “reform” is a meaningless term, There is corporate reform (privatization, testing, …) and progressive reform as described above.
There’s nothing altruistic about wanting endless buckets of money poured into one’s part of society.
Folks who build roads want more money for roads, nurses and doctors want more for healthcare, small business wants more help for small business, and so it goes…
I guiess that means they’re all “reformers” , progressive or otherwise 😉
How much would it all cost?
You haven’t a clue.
Where would the money come from without driving the country towards insolvency?
You haven’t a clue.
Once you answer those questions – which you have refused to do – your “more-of-the-same” radical reforms are useless.
Don’t even bother to ask that question to Doug, But to add more to education budgets, is just another exercise of waiting in bated breath, and see the same dismal results. I am totally convince as the education system stands, no matter how small the classes become, no matter how inclusive they become, the same results would repeat themselves. Note the classism of Doug and very much like others within the education systems. “It includes individual attitudes and behaviors, systems of policies and practices that are set up to benefit the upper classes at the expense of the lower classes.[1] It can also include attitudes and behavior of prejudice and discrimination by members of the lower class to members of the higher class.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_discrimination
CCL was probably a victim of classism within the education system, but also accepted it as a cost in collaborating with the public education system. It was a no-no to pinch employees from within their top levels, but the greatest sin was to report the data, that reflected the workings of classism within the education system and its policies.
perhaps Nancy but my bet is that the work done by CCL was not relevant to those on the ground that could have, should have been able to clearly draw a line from the CCL to improvement on the ground for students.
Chang “Once” to “Until” in previous post.
I goofed.
True Catharine, not at all relevant to the teachers in meaningful ways, and even if it was relevant, no power to change things for the better in their classroom. A news bulletin that just came out, are teachers in Spain protesting, on the extra two hours of instruction time. With a drop of a hat, teachers will go on a wildcat strike over number of hours, but say nothing as a collective or as individuals to the higher levels on the low literacy and numeracy rates of adults. But an extra 24 minutes per day, will sent the teachers into a tail-spin, and somehow they have found their voices.
So an insulation company comes to you and says I can insulate your house to R90 for $5000. You say, why would I spend that? Where would the money possibly come from? Then he tells you first you will be warmer but second it is not just free but better than free because soon you have fully recovered the $5000 in savings but from that point on you continue to save a bundle on your annual heat and AC bill. You cannot afford not to do it if you are smart.
Education works the very same way, the more you spend, the faster the nation becomes highly productive and the other social cost plunge both way past the increased cost of education. We have been around his bush many times but you still don’t seem to get it. Remedial economics for you.
Any boss that asked workers to work 24 minutes longer without compensation would have a lot of angry workers on their hands. Keep bashing teachers though, it keeps them in tight solidarity with the federation. They know where they would be if “reformers” had any real influence.
There are far more people trained to be teachers than there are openings for teachers so the claim that we have to pay more is, at best, self-serving. The numbers are clear; there are more than enough aspiring teachers, presumably all “qualified”, than we need so higher salaries aren’t an issue. It could be argued that teachers in areas of need should be paid more, however the unions would fight that tooth and nail. To them a teacher is a teacher is a teacher, right?
Seriously.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/10/poverty_early_childhood_education.html
Seems that the public education ECE juggernaut is really moving now.
Sure lining up for the grants, at the same time creating loop holes for the grants to spent elsewhere. Hypocrisy at its best, and certainly no interest in ensuring the future of students.
Those weren’t the questions – not even close.
Keep insulating, Doug.
So Doug, there is such a thing as having too much insulation, as there is such things as having too much funding. In both cases, it causes problems, that cost twice as much too fix, and too much waste of money pouring down a dark hole. Blame that on the CTV network, who are reporting the protests all over the world. You should actually check Doug, and the protesters telling the union jackals to take a hike. As observers have noted, it is not only the Wall street gang, it is also the union brass, their overpaid salaries that are sometimes 5 times as much as their average members, and their political lobbying, while at the same time bargaining the rights and benefits of their members. But than again Doug, you have no worries with your cushy teachers’ pension, and private school to bring in the extras to keep up to your life style. No worries at the moment for any dramatic changes with the teachers’ unions, who have manage to keep restrictions on students’ learning, how they learn, when they learn it, and than ensure that it is written in the contracts. If not go out on strike, and said nothing about the the final outcomes of 12 years of schooling. The union heads will soon be on the sidelines, watching and the day is coming. The public has no more appetite to dance with unions, and from what I read, on both levels of governments, neither do they. Collaboration is a foreign word to union brass, as well as the idea that they are impervious to change within the laws of the land. Watch it happen Doug, especially in places like Europe, where the public and protesters are in no moods to support unions, that come from the public purse. They are fed up with the hypocrisy.
How does a plumber who is not effective improve,higher salary or retraining?
If we tell him he`ll get a raise for learning to hook up washers and dishwashers,he`ll get the upgrade and pay for it himself,if you just give him more money every year,he`ll remain the same and feel he`s entitled to more and more without delivering an improved service..
Analogies for this would be innumerable,as if paying teachers more improves them,that makes ZERO sense Doug.
Nancy`s point-” But to add more to education budgets, is just another exercise of waiting in bated breath, and see the same dismal results. I am totally convince as the education system stands, no matter how small the classes become, no matter how inclusive they become, the same results would repeat themselves.”
This makes total sense-we have the problem of professor ego,the irresponsible nature of ignoring compelling research which makes a difference and an education budget that is 84% educator`s salaries-I did my research!
How do we make things better?We absolutely need someone watching,kids need parents,employees need bosses and bureaucracies need watchdogs.
Tests are essential.
The CEOs say “you must pay well or you will not get good CEOs”
The doctors say, “if you do not pay well you will not get good doctors”
The lawyers say “if you do not pay well you will not get good lawyers”
The best hockey players say “if you don’t pay well you won’t get the best players”
If teachers say, you need to pay well to attract the best people to teach reformers say “I don’t get the connection between higher pay and teacher quality?”
Try to be serious.
Put yourself in the same league eh Doug?
CEOs – self interest and crony capitalism
Doctors -exception to the rule – highly skilled and saves people
Lawyers – who exactly can afford lawyers?
Hockey players – self interest and owners raise hockey tickets to pay for salaries, plus banned all food and drink, and force everyone to buy from the over price canteens.
As for teachers – nice job, with comfortable pension, benefits and tied to the inflation index
Since I took over part of the education of my child, should I not be paid for my services render Doug? No, I didn’t think so. But it would have been nice to received a few thousand dollars from the per student funding, to pay for the extras that I did without. Funny thing, except for the CEOs, all of them are held to a higher standard of accountability than the teacher profession. A job for life, especially looking at the Ontario College of Teachers, except when one is a whistle blower. We certainly need lots of eyes on the public education system, given the Ontario College of Teachers loaded with unionists are not up to the task. No matter how high a teacher is paid, it does not guarantee quality especially in a system that offer mediocrity. Need accountability measures to measure just how far they will go to lower quality, to pay for the raises, and other such niceties, like the well kept buildings of the unions, boards, that would put the high income school to shame.
No you don’t get any money Nancy she is your kid. We all help our kids. You want to home school go ahead, knock yourself out.
Another reason for a federal agency in public education to connect the research to the schools, as well as providing models that are much better than the present inclusive classroom, that discriminates on the basis of individual learning needs. What I provided went far beyond the typical help of a parent, and was force to since the school would not provide what I wanted. Furthermore, the present day alternate programs, and placement of such students under the alternate label, only provides two basic choices. The dumb-down version and the version for the gifted. What happens to the students who are neither, and need basic education services in the three Rs? What happens to students who have been provided alternate programs, throughout the first 8 years, when they applied to post-secondary? In both cases, if they have been identified, bearing the label, the odds decrease dramatically for smooth entry into a post-secondary institute. Students who are in need of remediation in the 3 Rs, the identified and the non-identified are stuck in the inclusive classroom, handicapped because of their weaknesses in the 3 Rs, and is expected to reach the same outcomes with or without accommodations.
The present day model of the inclusive classroom, is a model with built-in systemic discrimination against the students who have their weaknesses in the 3 Rs, in some aspect or in all of the 3 Rs. There is far more students with weaknesses in the 3 Rs, than any other disability in the classroom. Percentages can ranged from 20 percent to a high of 60 percent, where students do not have the foundation to keep up to the class work, or much less meet the expected outcomes outlined by the board and ministry.
I had no choice Doug, but to re-teach and tutor at home, because her future depended on it. What is not fair, when parents are force to used private tutors and other options, to provide education services that the public education system only provides two choices for the most part, and of the two, one choice is a disaster to the student’s future for entry into post-secondary, and/or as well as the near future in doing advance high school work.
The inclusive classroom, has become the way for educrats, and even union brass to expand the typical classroom, to further advance their goals of smaller classrooms, and their sloppy teaching practices, that only hinders the improvement of the 3 Rs for students who are weak in these areas. From the beginning, my child was portrayed as a slow student, not academic, by the educrats of the day. She was not, but her problem lied not with her disability, but with the lack of the public education system, not providing a solid foundation for which students can stand on. What is provided, is compensatory education, by providing accommodation, differentiation instruction, and dumb-down work.This is not providing an education, but it does provide the conditions for the students to advance the goals of the unionists and other special interests within the public education system.
Today, my child is a testament to what a solid foundation can do for students who are not achieving, But she is not an isolated case, and there is thousands upon thousands like her, where the parents took it upon themselves to ensure that their children received that solid foundation to stand on. The final outcomes of the data from CCL, is a testament to the poor job that the public education system is doing for their students, and a pox to the high numbers of students never reaching their full academic potential.
It is a public system. It is not design your own system within it and we will pay for it.
No teacher can cope with 25 kids getting 25 different educational experiences. SE class a bit more can be tailored but only so far.
If you are unhappy with PS choices you can home school or get private tutors. Please don’t expect the rest of us to pay.
I’m sure you did a fine job Nancy but she is your child.
Oh the irony of it.
Doug cannot/will not estimate how much his grandiose plans would cost yet the first thing mentioned in his insulation analogy is THE PRICE of $5,000.
By the way, Doug, you’re wayyyyyyyyy off with your $5,000.00 estimate – just like the educrats. From a technical viewpoint, too much insulation is a liability that NEVER pays for itself.
The studies have been done Andrew check Yipsillanti Michigan Perry Study on ECE, many studies education returns to public coffers on at least a 4:1 ratio.
It is not just free to invest in education, it is better than free. It returns many X the investment.
Click to access Education-and-Economic-Growth.pdf
Here is a starter article for you Andrew and others. If necessary, I can bury you in articles that show that the nations that spend heavily on education grow rapidly and to higher levels and those that do not spend massive amounts of money on education lag behind.
China is today spending the highest % of GDP on education of any nation. If we do not match and outstrip it we will be seriously left behind. Do you think China is stupid to spend so much or are they onto something?
Yes, of course HOW you spend money is important but spending the most almost guarantees international superiority.
Jo Anne will say “but most money in education goes to teachers” as if that was wasted money. More teachers, means smaller classes, higher paid teachers increases the quality of teachers by attracting the best to teach.
Sure, you don’t need to buy these arguments made by companies like Cisco, not me but be prepared to be left behind as an economic backwater.
So you took my advice. Dig further Doug, there is more on the missing elements that are often neglected in economic articles that are pushing the globalization angle. After all, international companies and the big guys rake in huge profits, at the expense of the average citizens. Also ignoring the ever widening wage gaps, experiencing since the 1980s, where the average salary has risen a grand total of $3000 since the 1980s. Much better to look over time on the historical scale, it doesn’t look too bad. Not to mentioned that the main premise of the article, is that as technology increases, the GDP rises a long with increase education.
The important missing element in this article and like other articles like it, is the literacy levels of the citizens of a country. In China, around 80 % have low literacy skills, but they can afford it at the moment, since they have close to two billion people, and most of the jobs needed do not required a higher level of literacy. In the developed countries, in and around 50 % of people have low literacy and numeracy skills. In the world of globalization, and its economic policies, the 21st century still does not require the majority of its citizens to become fair to good skills in literacy and numeracy.
In the conclusion of the article it states, “Three sources of additional growth in enrolment and spending are assumed to build the model for this story: a) an expansion of participation rates in post-secondary, b) realization of the “Education for All” objectives that would bring an even larger share of the world’s population into school, and c) efficiency improvements in the delivery of education (due to a combination of technological change, developments in cognitive science and reform of the school process) such that the average per pupil cost of education does not increase even though quality does (in other words it is assumed that technology and organizational change will improve).”
Just up your alley Doug, where the percentage of people with high skills will remain in around the 30 percent, the trades will take about 40 percent and 30 percent will still be reserved for the low skill jobs, where low literacy and numeracy are not an issue. Those percentages are repeated throughout the global articles dealing with education, jobs and the 21st century literature. It is not coincidence that the same percentages can be found in national literature of countries, especially in the developed countries.
Below is a statement that makes a regular appearance like the article that Doug has provided.
“The 20th century was the education century. For the first time in human history the majority of the world’s population learned to read and write (Cohen and Bloom, 2005). The introduction and spread of universal compulsory schooling, the daring and innovative mass education systems pioneered in the 19th century, made this happen. The 20th century also demonstrated that universal compulsory schooling is indispensable for economic prosperity and social well-being in an “industrial growth society” (IGS).”
But what is never mentioned, the citizens of the world or a country, learn how to read and write, but most of the working population slugging it out in the world, are not very good in reading, writing and numeracy. As a result, people are limited to fewer options in furthering their education, as well as jobs.
There is another gem, that more than likely hold dark ramifications for the average citizen. “But, once the studies adopt cognitive measures of achievement—ones that are not necessarily exclusively based on schooling but reflect the broader context for learning specific cognitive skills—then the high pay-off returns. The latter evidence may still not capture knowledge society dimensions of learning since most of the cognitive tests remain fairly narrowly focused on industrial era skill sets. However the paradox remains—in certain cases years of schooling has high rates of return and in others cognitive achievement.”
Will that be the future, sorting out through the use of cognitive testing. In one swoop, the education systems can sort, labeled, and condemn students to one pathway, restricting their future and income.
Welcome to globalization.
But Doug, the present set-up of the public education system, discriminates on approximately 60 percent of students, who do not quite fit in with the curriculum, instruction methods, outcomes, union contracts and the general beliefs and goals of the school. On top of the other agendas at the board and ministry levels, influencing outcomes of students. Yes it would be nuts to provide 25 different educational experiences in the regular classroom, especially when approximately 60 percent of the students have vastly different levels of the 3 Rs. And no Doug, a SE class does not tailor the individual students’ learning needs, but teaches to the lowest denominator. The whiz kids in a SE class are expected to become the peer mentors to help their less than capable SE students. But what never happens in either the regular inclusive classroom and the SE classroom, is instruction in providing the solid foundation knowledge needed to get to the next unit, much less the next grade. Where one student receives an A, for a report that is filled with a spelling and grammar errors, and another student, receives a C, with less spelling errors, but was not deem creative as the A report filled with spelling and grammar mistakes. Students soon learned, the lesson of the importance of creativity over clear and readable communication. Or the lesson of, getting the right answer is no longer important, but the process is of the greater important, no matter how inefficient it is, and no matter if the answer was correct or incorrect. Furthermore, students learned the lesson of having a solid foundation is of no importance, since it can be learned at anytime in one’s life. Rather hard to do, when sitting in a calculus class, with the teacher expecting the student to complete the problem, and the student has a weak background knowledge of fractions.
But than again, the public education system and its many agendas have set up a system that systematically discriminates across the ranges of students, to advance their own goals and agendas. There is nothing free about a public education system, where the hidden costs of a public education system, is passed unto the parents, the taxpayers, and throughout society. Learning foundation knowledge and skills in the time of adulthood, cost society and the economy dearly, especially in times of economic troubles. But a real boom for the public education to continue to discriminate, creating inequalities, to ensure their high salaries and the go-to guy to solve some of the society problems, as well as to advance their own goals and agendas. A federal agency in education, could be effective in stopping the wide-spread discrimination, as well as the systemic discrimination towards the public education system and their education.
A federal agency in education would be important, to prevent the ongoing discrimination when it comes to the education of students. The Supreme Court of Canada, is hearing the Moore case, which just might make the next urgent need of the formation of a federal agency in education. It is not only dyslexic students, and other students will disabilities will be impacted, but all of the students will benefit. A better quality education will be the result, as well as the complete restructuring of a system, and including a solid foundation in the 3 Rs. It will become urgent, due to the heavy pay outs of children not receiving the proper supports.
“.This legal analysis relieves governments of any obligation to alter the substance of the services they provide to the public in order to make a more inclusive, better functioning society for those with disabilities.
Importantly, this argument also directly contradicts the commitments made when Canada ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in March 2010. The Convention obligates Canada to promote “full and effective participation and inclusion in society” for persons with disabilities, and to ensure that they “receive the support required, within the general education system, to facilitate their effective education”.
What the Supreme Court of Canada decides in Moore may well shape the relationship between governments, in their role as service-providers, and people with disabilities for years to come.”
http://www.cdn-hr-reporter.ca/new/viewpoints
Sounds like paranoia Nancy, 60% are discriminated against? Did that figure just pop out of your head?
In Ontario over 25% go to university
over 25% go to college
25% (roughly changes yearly) graduate HS
25% don’t graduate.
I believe we can have a society where 40% go to university, 40% go to college, 10% graduate HS and do trades and 10% may not graduate do to personal shortcomings of ability and/or effort.
Yes, we can all do better but it takes investment to do better, not “rules” or pedagogical change.
All of the reforms proposed by the so-called reform movement are being tried south of the border and each week another crashes and burns.
NCLB fully based on “test and punish accountability” demanded by reformers is now on the way out as a laughing stock and a total failure.
The reform movement has NO answers even worth consideration.
http://educationviews.org/2011/10/23/no-child-left-behind-plan-doomed-to-failure/
Amen.
You will see in this study Andrew that when a nation invests heavily in education, it gets back more in tax revenue than the cost of the education making education investment better than free, it is a money maker. The more you spend on education, the richer we all become.
Where will we ever get the money? Listen carefully, it is FREE.
http://edr.sagepub.com/content/38/1/5.full
If you don’t have time for the whole article skip to the conclusions and save for later.
The studies have been done Andrew check Yipsillanti Michigan Perry Study on ECE, many studies education returns to public coffers on at least a 4:1 ratio.
It is not just free to invest in education, it is better than free. It returns many X the investment.
______________________________________________________
Those weren’t the questions.
Are you ADHD?
Actually the Perry Study was of a relatively small sample of kids with very particular circumstances. Using that as a model for all kids across society would be akin to using some of the teachers who post here and claiming they represent all teachers. Always important to compare apples-to-apples.
You have stated repeatedly that we can’t afford to educate everyone to my standards. In fact we cannot afford not to.
I truly hope that the political right and the reform community continue to argue against massive educational expenditure while the Lib-Left will continue to argue for massive increases in expenditure. I have seen the numbers. Your position is very unpopular while our position is very popular.
Which of the “Lib-Left” are arguing for “massive increases in expenditure”? It might be useful to check the sources of your “numbers”. I suspect we’ll see the usual suspects.
I think we saw Mr Hudak in the Ontario election repudiate his previous stand on the ELP and also announce that he would spend an extra $2 billion on Ontario education. I suspect Mr Hudak’s conservative polling showed him the same thing that the Vector polling showed me.
If he opposed the ELP the Liberals would beat him over the head with it because every poll shows it is wildly popular. Mr Hudak also pledged to match and exceed Mr McGuinty on education spending. You can see that the conservative polls he was looking at still told him a promise of an extra $2 billion was in order. There is no political appetite whatsoever for education cutbacks and Mr Hudak knows it. Ms Witmer reported to him that they could not possibly win if they opposed ELP. As critic she had been out around the province and it was popular everywhere.
A $2 billion increase in a school budget of +/- $20 billion os a “massive increase in expenditure”? The money has been committed to very specific areas, not the shotgun approach some here claim as their “standards”.
Apart from that the above claims are right on.
As to Vector Polling…?
“Lib-Left” Dalton McGuinty has been Premier for 8 years and public education in Ontario is tanking.
“Education’s well-known susceptibility to the “authority syndrome” stems from its tacit endorsement of a personalistic view of knowledge acquisition: the belief that knowledge resides within particular individuals who then dispense it to others. Knowledge in science is publicly verifiable and thus depersonalized.”
– Dr. Keith Stanovich, The Reading Teacher,
Vol. 47, #4 Dec 93/Jan 94
“We’ve messed up!!! (20 years of whole language curriculum – Reid Lyon, President of the N.I.H.) U.S.A.
– Geschwind Lecture, International Dyslexia Conference,
November 1999
It`s now 2011-need I say more,
It`s methodology,instruction-not salary-
You can keep pouring money-results won`t change.
“”In Ontario over 25% go to university
over 25% go to college
25% (roughly changes yearly) graduate HS
25% don’t graduate. ”
Fudging on the numbers eh Doug?
Ontario is at 30 % for university, and for the rest of the provinces in and around the 25 % mark, which has not change since the 1960s in Canada. Ontario will go back down, considering population shifts, and costs of university. College closer to 50 percent of grade 12 graduates enters colleges in all provinces. In a nutshell Doug, 75 percent of grade 12 graduates enter some type of post-secondary. Leaving 25 % of the student population who do not go, or wait well in their late twenties and early thirties to go. Nobody knows, because the numbers are not track, even the numbers who graduate from programs in either college or university. All the numbers that are track, are the number of new admissions, and the number of graduates in each program of study. Very few if any, track the drop outs, the switching of programs, and all the other various reasons why students do not finished post-secondary.
Only 25 % graduate high school yearly, Doug? What about the figures of 85 to 95 percent that are so commonly published yearly? A much touted figure by the educrats. And what happen to other 50 percent? Spending another two years in high school? Perhaps in Ontario, but the provinces I know so well, the students are require to carry a full load, and is expected to graduate within the 4 year time frame. In total, at the local high school perhaps 2 to 3 students is given another year to received their diploma, for one to three credited courses that are missing. Now, the real question is whether the high school diploma, and goals of all the provincial public education systems is worth the paper its written on. Since the figures for remediation courses at the university and colleges are stats worthy of inspection and indicates that at least 40 percent of the new students admitted are taking remediation courses, as well as paying for tutors. Stuff for the most part should have been learned in grade school and high school. Than there is the other set of new admissions, who are taking grade 12 courses at the college level, to pick up the science or the math course missing to qualify for admittance in a field of study. The third set are the number of grade 12 graduates who went straight into the work force, the drop-outs, and other reasons, who are not qualified through assessment for entry into post-secondary, are upgrading, retraining, and in some cases repeating the high school experience once again, at adult training centres, colleges, and other like education facilities. Sure like to know the amount of funding at both levels of education to address the needs of the third group of students, as well as the money spent on their own dime by the students, to address the deficiencies of their education. The value of a grade 12 diploma can be hotly contested, since much of the remediation taking place after high school, is on the foundation knowledge and skills of the 3 Rs. Stuff that should have been taught back in grade school and high school.
Now Doug, the last link can also be turned around showing a negative light at the public education system. Like most studies of this ilk, the basic assumption is that the education system is doing the best job possible under the circumstances. Always concluding with the demand of more money, and in this case, this report is calling for doubling the amount per student, without one change to the structure of the education system. Well Doug, $20,000 can buy you a nice little private education, compared to a public education that produces higher unemployment, higher crime, higher substance abuse, lower health outcomes, and higher ratio of dependency and reliance of the state.
Yes, it can be turned around, especially for the 60 percent of students graduating with lower deficiencies and skills of the 3 Rs. In the report is concludes, “Overall, investment in adequate education for all children is more than just good public investment policy with high monetary returns. A society that provides fairer access to opportunities, that is more productive, and that has higher employment, better health, less crime, and lower dependency is a better society in itself. That the attainment of such a society is also profoundly good economics is simply an added incentive.”
http://edr.sagepub.com/content/38/1/5.full
Good economics? Whose pocketbook and benefits? Not the 60 percent of students who are the victims of the public education system and their self-serving interests and agendas. And note Doug, the patterns of numbers are consistent at all levels, where the 21st century education still repeats the same repetitive patterns of low literacy and numeracy, with a new set of soft skills. After all, if cognitive assessment is in the future, and making the assumption that advance technology and its knowledge, the work force will require a new set of skills that entail the fine motor skills and dexterity to work with small details. After all mother boards, labour force does not have to be highly educated, but what is necessary is fine motor skills and dexterity. That is why the stuff is made in China, by the cheapest labour possible. For that matter, the rest of the electronic and digital devices. Even at $10 a hour, it is still too much for the high tech companies for manufacturing of their products.
John L
A $2 billion increase in a school budget of +/- $20 billion os a “massive increase in expenditure”? The money has been committed to very specific areas, not the shotgun approach some here claim as their “standards”.
Apart from that the above claims are right on.
As to Vector Polling…?
Of a $2B increase he would need to spend $1.4 B on teacher salaries and $200 M on support staff or there would be no “labour peace” shall we say.
Andrew Gilmour
“Lib-Left” Dalton McGuinty has been Premier for 8 years and public education in Ontario is tanking.
Seen by many as the best public system in the english speaking world (McKinley Group) funny the guy just won re-election notwithstanding a 7% increase for the NDP who wants him to spend more. Seems like 65% of Ontario voted Liberal or NDP, only about 35% voted PC and it would have been much lower had he opposed ELP or education spending.
Education cutbacks or even freezes in spending are profoundly unpopular.
Hmmm…
I’d love to see how things go if almost all of the spending increase flowed out the door in salary increases…
I don’t know if the rest of society would be too supportive of “no labour peace” just now. McGuinty has repeatedly sold out to teachers, and others, so if they still start whinging and moaning I suspect the public would conclude that teachers simply bcan’t be trusted to get along with any government of any stripe.
As to “education cutbacks or even freezes in spending are profoundly unpopular”… I suspect you’d find that the public are very capable of differentiating between money spent on kids and money spent on teachers.
Let’s hire Vector to do a poll. “Are teacher salaries a top priority?”
You can only milk the “for the kids” thing for so much. Luckily there are some realistic types in the unions keeping the fringes in line.
Such a good posting!
Nancy, thanks you have made my point stronger. We have the highest post secondary participation rate in the world last time I looked.
It`s now 2011-need I say more,
It`s methodology,instruction-not salary-
You can keep pouring money-results won`t change.
Don’t tell the OECD or China or Korea or all the nations that are racing ahead with more spending. The number of studies that show that the more a society spends on education the more taxes stream in, the lower the social cost, the more advanced the society becomes with a higher standard of living and a higher quality of life would fill volumes.
I know it doesn’t fit some pet theories in the Corporate Reform world but the OECD says it is so.
The OECD is paid for by western governments most of which are quite conservative.
Spending money on teachers = smaller classes and better teachers
2+2=4
Already covered.
You can’t compare increases in spending unless you know what base spending was to begin with or how much is spent on various components.
Doug should know that and I suspect math wasn’t his area of expertise
70% of every board of ed budget is the cost of teachers, 10% other support staff. Increases in spending would need to be in line with this.
If McGuinty thinks teachers will accept less than the inflation rate in raises, he has another think coming. Not going to happen wihout major power struggle and loss of Liberal support to Andre Horwath. Somebody needs to remind him who paid for the Working Families Coalition ads that cut Hudak down to size.
Massive political investment by teachers in Liberals and NDP may persuade Liberals that cutbacks to teachers are unwise. Otherwise next time it will be NDP only.
McGuinty’s one saving grace is that with declining enrolement and the # of teachers tied to the number of students, he may be able to keep class sizes down, keep his teacher labour bill the same and pay remainng teachers more but to do that he needs to close schools rural AND urban. Very unpopular.
Hopefully he is learning that community use of empty space in schools is the answer, elp, adult ed, health clinics, community centres, library services and so on can be placed in partially empty schools and justify their continued program. Kids could even be boarded right in the school site.
Actually a big chunk of new spending is on the ELP so that’s only applicable to certain levels of kids, not across the entire system. You should know that.
Which union actually gave you a mandate to say how their members will vote? Then there’s the issue of whhether the teachers even vote as the leadership tells them to… I suspect most teachers, like members of most unions, will vote as individuals and not as union toadies. Several of my teacher friends aren’t nearly as quick to drink the union uber alles kool-aid as some here. The standing joke is that some of the “union leader”- types would be angry no matter what job they had and are treated accordingly.
As to “massive political investment” that looks like the teacher unions simply buy off weak politicians. Could be time for a little pushback by the rest of us,,,
You’ve got to put more work into this stuff as you claim to be an expert.
Inany event this line of discussion seeems to have devolved into another soapbox so we might want to move back to the issue at hand.
Doug, Korea and China are only spending more to increase the amount of students taking full education up to grade 9. Otherwise, the small expenditures being made to increase the number of students to finish high school , is laughable considering their is extra fees that must be paid to attend a public high school. As a result, the percentage of students finishing up high school, is around 60 % of the population, and rural locations is even lower than 50 percent. As well as their economic engine runs on cheap labour, and given the latest story coming out of China and that poor toddler ran over twice, and 18 people walking had to walk around her, who did not help. Yeah, just another questionable country to copy education practices, who only care to educate their citizens to lower percentages than the developed countries.
It is bad enough, that standard practice within the public education system, are shaped by the globalization policies of predicting work force, which in turn shapes the percentages needed in the various work classifications. In Western public education systems, that starts early in the primary grades, by ensuring 60 percent of any classroom will always have lower levels of literacy and numeracy, and is nurtured by the structure and repeating systemic fault lines of the system, Thus producing the labour needed for the low-paying jobs, without benefits and pensions, and a base to promote profit driven activities by the public education system. The only way that your little pet theory works in reality, and as others have advocate as well, is to ensure that 95 percent of the student population has the necessary foundation, skills and abilities to move from one grade to the next. You guys said it is impossible, the reformers on the other side, said it is impossible as well. The only reason why both sides say it is impossible, because it would put a serious dent in the profits being made on both sides, a serious dropped in funding because there would be no demand of additional staff and teachers, And no demand for the crazy pet theories of educrats, that hinders the achievement of students and the slamming of the doors of their futures.
Now what is never talk about on either side of the debate, except in the small circles of advocating for wholesale change, by building a new system based on the science and not some sloppy philosopher who believed in class structure, and all kinds of wonderful discrimination that treated humans no better than a side of pork. But progress in society has some wonderful benefits, where human rights and the application of the rights will probably be the death of the progressive education, and other reformers who like to profit off the sloppy progressive education practices. Doug, you ought to wonder in on the UN sites, and that is if you can stomach it, the writing is so legal and boring, i only have the patience to spend a bit of time on the sites. What is more important, how the human rights, along with the children’s rights are entering into the education system via through the legal system. It is seen in the legal decisions, and in the law blogs, and sometimes in the main media newspapers. It will be the current public education system undoing, because it does not provide the proper supports to address the needs of the students, either as a collective or within sub-groups or on the individual basis.
In the Moore case, which is probably one of the most important court case in Canadian public education, that is based on human rights and the Constitution of Canada. ” At the heart of the Moore case is a dispute over whether people with disabilities can claim that the failure to provide an additional service, which they need in order to benefit from the general public service that is offered, constitutes discrimination. Government service-providers, like the British Columbia Ministry of Education, argue strenuously that human rights complaints can only be successful if there is discrimination within the service that is already being provided. If a service is not already offered, there can be no discrimination. Their position is that the intensive remediation that Jeffrey needed was not provided by the School District at the time, and consequently there was no discrimination.”
http://www.cdn-hr-reporter.ca/new/viewpoints
The legal opinions on the Moore challenge to the Supreme Court of Canada, will rest on the right of the public education system to provide any type of education service that they deem fit for students with disabilities, regardless of fit or if the student can access the service.
“This seems to mean that governments can provide whatever accommodation for people with disabilities they decide on. If that accommodation is inadequate, or does not work to make the general service accessible, that cannot be challenged. People with disabilities cannot compare themselves to people without disabilities to demonstrate that they are not receiving the equal benefit of the service.”
The one size fits all approaches will be under the microscope as well, and if they are in violation of the various rights. Including one that I omitted, but will be of importance.
“Importantly, this argument also directly contradicts the commitments made when Canada ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in March 2010. The Convention obligates Canada to promote “full and effective participation and inclusion in society” for persons with disabilities, and to ensure that they “receive the support required, within the general education system, to facilitate their effective education”.
The human right codes, and the Constitutions of Western countries will be the public education undoing, and the beginning of a new model of public education where all students will reach their full potential with a solid foundation to rest on. Unfortunately, it will take the payment of millions of dollars for students with disabilities to force the public education system to change. But still cheaper, than doubling the amount of education funding, doing things the same way, and getting the same dismal results.
I estimate that about 10% of the population agrees with you Nancy but about 80% agree with me. The other 10% don’t know.
Doug,
you sound like a small town councilor trying to convince the electorate to vote for him/her next time.
http://www.thelittleeducationreport.com/NewBC.html
Well the human rights, the legal rights to an education will be the undoing of a public education system, that always works for the self-serving interests of those who work in the education system. No matter the harm and damage being done to students’ education and their futures. I guess you will not be dancing in the streets, or saying congrats, if the Supreme Court rules in favour of the Moores, I will be one of the thousands in each province collecting a a chunk of change, and my check like others will be a hefty price tag, because the discrimination took place, by breaking and ignoring the legal legislation, the school acts, and other regulatory acts, from day one. This is on top of the fact of not providing the proper supports for an effective education.
self propaganda-not allowed.
Doug,my post was for you-
Does thy protest too much?
A federal agency in education, would have been handy to intercede to protect the constitutional rights to an education concerning language and funding.
“English school boards in Quebec feel like they have had the “legs cut out underneath them” by Education Minister Line Beauchamp’s announcement to cut school board budgets across the province by 50 per cent, says Linton Garner, a delegate to the Quebec Liberal Party’s weekend convention.”
Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Minister%2Bplans%2BEnglish%2Bschool%2Bbudgets/5593650/story.html#ixzz1bhKO2e1k
“Martin is determined to grab the teens’ attention and hold it because he wants to change some wretched statistics: a 60 per cent high school dropout rate among on-reserve students and 43 per cent among off-reserve aboriginal students, compared with 9.5 per cent for non-aboriginals; a university degree rate of seven per cent for first nations compared to 23 per cent for the non-aboriginal population; and a suicide rate among aboriginal youth six times higher than the that of non-aboriginals.
On-reserve students are being short-changed by inadequate school funding from the federal government, Martin says.
“School education is a universal free good . . . but the provinces spend 25 to 30 per cent, per student, more on primary and secondary education (off reserve) than the federal government does on reserve.
“If you live on reserve, you’re getting one-third less in your education, which is morally wrong,” Martin said.
“The same thing happens in health care, welfare and everything else.”
http://www.canada.com/life/Former%2Bcalls%2Beducation%2Babsolute%2Bimproving%2Baboriginal%2Blife/5592923/story.html
In Canada, it all depends on where one lives, where federal and provincial alike have no hesitation, to use politics, as a means to create the conditions to discriminate against groups of people.
On a Quebec web site called Citizens For Democratic and Autonomous Schools.
“The real crux of the matter is that budget cuts should be universal and not based on language. The funds that are so lavishly spent by school boards on conventions, overseas trips during hard times etc etc should be going into the classrooms of all our children whether English or French speaking.”
As James Wilson so aptly puts it,
“The government’s proposal is not so much as to cut funding to education, as it is to redirect it; the monies produced by reducing the boards administrative budget, are to be given to the schools themselves.”
http://acdsa.org/
Playing politics on the backs of students and their education.
Needed to find the best explanation. It happened to be me. 🙂
The point I hope I have made is that education spending, along with health spending, are the most popular expenditures of government, which is why any politician is much more likely to be elected with a promise of far more education spending than “holding the line” or cutbacks. The public supports the public system and believes that a lot more money is the answer.
Those who take a position against this have a much harder row to hoe.
If the public supported more expenditures in public education, than why is it whatever part of the education system, comes up with some pretty stupid policies that harms the students, the public is always dismiss in favour of the stupid policies composed of the various parts of the education system.
Like this one, where zero is no more the norm for cheating, and the teachers’ union brass pretending they knew nothing about it. But the individual teachers hit the roof when they heard of the new policy. Using politics, to get into the news, to appear to be the good guys. And the new policy will just cost more in dollars and cents to implement, taking away a sliver of what is budgeted for the schools.
“New rules brought down by Newfoundland and Labrador’s largest school board open the door for cheating, the president of the teachers’ union says.
A new Eastern School District policy calls for students to be given a new test if they are caught cheating, rather than a grade of zero. What do you think?
Outrageous: It not only condones cheating, it practically encourages it”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2011/10/24/nl-cheating-students-school-board-1024.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2011/10/24/nl-cheating-students-school-board-1024.html
Perhaps a federal agency in education, can point out the reasons why a zero should be given, based on the research.
Another reason for a federal agency in education, is to get rid of the terrible math curriculum, that is in every province across Canada. Between data achievement and the research, the curriculum should no longer be in the hands of the provincial education systems.
“What would you think about a Math curriculum that not only DOESN’T teach any of the four most important standard algorithms of elementary arithmetic — but strictly militates AGAINST the teaching of them?
Misguided, you’ll say? I hope so.
Now what if I told you that not only is there such a curriculum, but that the proponents of this curriculum have managed to get it implemented across a region encompassing millions of children, before the general public was aware of what was happening?
Welcome to the WNCP curriculum in Mathematics”
http://ahypatia.wordpress.com/
At the end of the article, “The purist teach-math-skill-without-understanding beast is a relative of Bigfoot and Nessie: I have never met one. It’s only a bogeyman, a straw-man to convince you to crowd over to the other side of the balance. However, the purist teach-math-understanding-with-no-actual-algorithmic-skill element, unbalanced in the extreme on the other side, is very real. It took a whole army of them to engineer the adoption of the WNCP math curriculum across four provinces and three Canadian territories.”
A whole army, as well as millions of dollars to produce even lower scores in achievement of math. Note all done, with the silent assent of those who work within the public education system, while they try to figure ways to profit by it, or passed a brand new cohort of students for the private tutor industry. Imagine now, university math professors reduced to teaching long division. Stuff that should have been taught years ago starting at the junior levels..
Just another insane tragedy-they get away with it-
Watchdog Agency at the Fed Level is essential,unless of course our cumulative apathy continues and a lack of accountability continues to permeate our society.
Shameful part is what the decision processes are based on. Based on the political, ideology, and best interests of those who work within the education system. Than the public is sold a set of falsehoods, where the bombs come well into the future. It is almost like the former USSR and their planned 20 year plans to control the numbers in the work force. Where the 20 year plan in this case, is to take 80 percent of the future students in post secondary to select fields of study that are in the humanities and social sciences, because they do not have the math background and fluency, to enter the science and math fields. Than have the gall to say, that students prefer the humanities and social sciences, and therefore a call for more funding, to create more courses to increase the chances of finding a job, in an over saturated job market, while jobs in the sciences and maths go begging. I can see that in 20 years from now.
Don`t kid yourself-it`s the publishers-they make a new textbook and sell it across Canada to make profit-
Anything flies through-most sales are executed through relationships versus worthiness and effectiveness of curriculum.
It`s simpler than you think-remember my OISE story-?
3rd floor,cognitive science and research,we should teach students the way the NICHD research study recommended-why don`t we I say?
Building is divided-First Floor that trains teachers disagrees-
You should tell the Ministry I state-they laugh-THAT`S JUST POLITICS..
It`s called passing the buck.
My only real beef with the CCL is that they really blew a huge opportunity to make an impact on teaching and learning. Well intentioned or not, they never said anything the least controversial and merely supported the status quo.
Where was the look at effective teaching methods, particularly for beginning reading, similar to the NICHD in the U.S. [http://www.nichd.nih.gov/news/releases/nrp.cfm]
or what the Johnson and Watson study did to blow the lid off in the UK? [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/4794696.stm]
The U.S. and U.K. works are landmark.
There was NOTHING like that even attempted in Canada. One other organization CLRNet (Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network) was also trying to do some reasonably good research and actually did make some good recommendations, but most of them are buried among the usual suspects. [http://nselwiki.cllrnet.ca/index.php/National_Strategy_for_Early_Literacy]
Again, they didn’t use their status to make any waves. Wonder why?–look at the people on the board of directors. Status quo. Again, they got de-funded. Wonder why???
You make some valid points about the CCL and particularly its advisory group. I tend to agree that Dr. Paul Cappon missed an opportunity to reach out to groups that actually supported international testing and standards. I can only assume that he concluded they were either onside or not in a position to influence policy on a larger scale.
I do not completely agree with you on the matter of their research agenda. The CCL’s annual reports were consistently high calibre, and typically more on the edge than their actual research findings. I have also found the CCL’s research studies on School Drop-Outs, Online Learning, and Early Learning to be sound and authoritative. They were far superior to anything coming out of CMEC or CEA.
Dr. Cappon created a Research Institute which did some advocacy. With him at the helm, you could be sure that the research was reasonably objective, invariably accurate, and usable for policy-makers. He left the advocacy to people like us with a passion to act on the findings. The CCL is certainly better than nothing at all.
I have no doubt that CCL’s research was of a high caliber. My point is that they didn’t do any research, like that of the UK or US, that made Canadian educators, or the public for that matter, sit up a take notice–until their swan song. They should have done more “shock and awe–“we need radically change how we teach reading and math by using systematic explicit instruction” instead of the “tsk too bad adults can’t read and something really should be done.”
A quick look at the list of research topics on the CCL website is a list of items that reinforced the status quo (learning through play, parenting skills, etc.) or stated the obvious (early learning is important, adult illiteracy is still a “problem” and “why boys don’t read”) (psst–maybe they can’t). One report on effective literacy strategies for immigrant students talks about systematic explicit phonics. It is given one sentance. Here’s the rest of the research reports filed under literacy:
◦Effective literacy strategies for immigrant students, September 23, 2009
◦Improving literacy levels among Aboriginal Canadians, September 4, 2008
◦Minority francophone education in Canada, August 29, 2009
◦Why boys don’t like to read: Gender differences in reading achievement, February 18, 2009
◦More education, less employment: Immigrants and the labour market, October 30, 2008
◦Improving literacy levels among Aboriginal Canadians, September 4, 2008
◦Summer learning loss, June 12, 2008
◦How literacy can affect your health, March 6, 2008
◦Media literacy for children in the internet age, January 10, 2008
◦The obstacles to learning about caring for elders in Canada, July 12, 2007
◦Patient self-management: Health-literacy skills required, June 19, 2007
◦Informal science learning in Canada, April 18, 2007
◦Canada slow to overcome limits for disabled learners, February 26, 2007
◦The skills gap in Canada: The knowledge intensity of Canadians’ jobs is growing rapidly, December 21, 2006
◦First language not necessarily linked to reading proficiency, May 12, 2006
◦How parents foster early literacy, 1 February 2006
◦Student achievement: What should we really be measuring?, October 13, 2005
◦Raising the score: promoting adult literacy in Canada, September 29, 2005
Here`s a CCL comment that those of us who are in the trenches see coming,
http://www.ccl-cca.ca/PALMM/Default.aspx
Guess why we have such high adult illiteracy,is it money or is it instruction that lacks success in half the classroom?
It appears that the Tories do not agree. Good reason not to vote Tory I guess.
What in heavens name, Doug, does adult illiteracy have to do with partisan politics?
Stephen Harper’s Conservatives cut the CCL, but it was — as you well know– for other reasons. Dr. Paul Cappon is likely a “big L” Liberal but it doesn’t necessarily follow that it’s just a matter of crass politics. The CCL, under Cappon, spent lots of money ($85 million), so they were vulnerable to the Big Cut.
What I object to is eliminating CCL all together without creating an alternative. Holding CCL more accountable for their spending is fine, killing the Institute is a huge mistake!
It is not the opposition killing it, it is the government that is on a crusade to cut back the scale of government. They must think it was what Rob Ford calls “gravy”.
Harper has been very strict on the constitution in the past and Federal intrusion into provincial affairs. There is almost nothing clearer in the constitution than the fact that education is provincial.
your comment Doug reflects the lack of detail involved in making education decisions for as many as 40% of children in any given classroom and up to 80% in at risk areas.
Morals missing,just give me a fatter pay cheque.
Joanne brought up something, that I became curious about. Seeing that there is cozy relationships between provincial education systems, and outside private concerns in the big names of the publisher business. Many of an educator become employees of the big publisher concerns, at all levels, and work actively with the big publishers to have their research published and funded. Throw in the profitable sideline of educators selling their lessons, and having their books published by the big guys in publishing business, and it becomes a highly selected closed shop of profit-seeking peddling education material that serves to advance their own agendas. Is is good for the students? Questionable. Are the authors of the textbooks, and note many of the authors are indeed educators, that may or may not have the background degree in the topic of the textbook, are hired by the big publishers, because they work within the public education system? I would say yes, and is one of the benefits of a closed shop, to prevent any drastic changes to the current pedagogy approaches that are practiced within the public education system and in the teaching faculties. Below is one example, a former dean of the education faculty at an university, now working at one of the big publisher firms as her second career.
“Dr. Marian Small is a leading Canadian math expert with over 30 years experience in Canadian mathematics education. She is the former Dean of Education at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) and has been a professor and director at UNB Math Centre for many years.
The focus of Dr. Small’s scholarly work has been the development of curriculum and text materials for students of mathematics. She has been an author on several text series at both elementary and secondary levels in Canada, the US, Australia, and Bhutan, and has been the senior author on many of those series including Nelson Math Focus and Nelson Mathematics.
Dr. Small has also served on the author team for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Navigation Series, Pre-K-2 and as the NCTM representative on the Mathcounts committee for middle school mathematics competitions throughout the US for several years.
Dr. Small is a frequent keynote speaker, regularly presenting across Canada and the US to educate and inspire teachers of K-12 mathematics.
Our Authors
Meet our Math Focus Author, Marian Small!”
http://www.nelsonschoolcentral.com/cgi-bin/lansaweb?webapp=WDSCPLN+webrtn=dscpln+F(LW3CATURL)=E_MATHEMATICS
22
As I search for her bio, on her education history, I came across lots of her instruction material, of the fuzzy warm math using the most inefficient methods.
An example below dealing with adult education.
“When it comes to computations, it is vital that adult students are supported in using alternative and efficient approaches. For example, to solve 300 – 189, there is no need to “borrow”; it makes great sense, instead, to say that
1+10 gets me up to 200 and another 100 gets me up to 300, so the difference is 111.”
The article is called Math Makes Sense by Marian Small. http://www.nald.ca/library/newsletter/naldnews/01spring/spring01.pdf
Need to say no more, and try as I did, I could not determined if Small had a mathematics degree. Quite surprising, since most professors have enough ego to published their bio on their education, to support their books and research. But she is indeed profiting producing math instruction that fall in line with the current pedagogical approaches taught by the education faculties.
Someone who attends one of the conferences that she is speaking at, should ask the question, if she has a mathematics degree. I wonder what would happen after the question was posed.
As Paul has stated, advocacy is left up to us with a passion to act on the findings. How about acting on the research within the closed shop of the public education system, and the education material being published that are questionable, and may indeed hinder achievement as well as fluency and a solid foundation.
Not to embarrass myself, does anyone understand in the above sample of Small’s article, why this is an efficient method? Why isn’t anyone within the education system, asking hard questions in using methods like the one above, for adults students who already have a weak foundation?
Interestingly-in the lunchroom,you`ll hear teachers who use these things talk about curriculums that work and curriculums that don`t.They know if their kids are learning,especially in the early grades.
One thing we could do is look at the purchased curriculum,tests the scores of kids and watch what works and doesn`t,it`s often tied to the curriculum.
I believe this is the prevalent curriculum across Canada-look at the Numeracy scores-what do we do now?
Was it that hard?
Now to save money and children`s academic lives,we need to confirm instruction based on sound pedagogy-that`s where the wars start and the professional opinion clash-
Looks like the above way may be expensive but the easiest…???
“Harper has been very strict on the constitution in the past and Federal intrusion into provincial affairs. There is almost nothing clearer in the constitution than the fact that education is provincial.”
______________________________________________________
But, according to you in previous posts, the feds had little or nothing to do with education. So how is it that those who have little or nothing to do with education have such a far-reaching effect?
Credibility down to -30.
You’re sinking fast, Doug.
“Looks like the above way may be expensive but the easiest…???”
____________________________________________________
It’s the shotgun approach. Keep shooting the shotgun (pumping ever increasing amounts of money into the system) until you hit something (it finally starts improving through blind, dumb luck) and then crow about the incredible success.
But, according to you in previous posts, the feds had little or nothing to do with education. So how is it that those who have little or nothing to do with education have such a far-reaching effect?
Credibility down to -30.
You’re sinking fast, Doug.
I guess it is difficult for you Andrew if you don’t know sec 91 and 92 of the BNA Act and judicial interrpretation over the years.
Education K-12 is provincial jurisdiction. Harper agrees, he sees CCL out there and says, I’m looking for cutbacks and the provinces should be doing this anyway, alone or in consortium without the Fed.
Ooops there it goes.
Try to keep up Andrew.
Try Chinese, Doug.
English is definitely not your cup of tea.