Report card: Sizing up Ontario's education system

Standing at a podium in a familiar red tie, Premier Dalton McGuinty's face stiffened as he offered a warning to the province's educators last August.

His message was sharp: Ontario's education system may suffer under a non-Liberal government.

"Let's be clear about the choice before Ontarians in the upcoming election," said McGuinty while fixing his gaze upon an audience of stakeholders from the province's elementary schools.

Bitter labour disputes and severe cutbacks have followed previous Conservative governments, he cautioned the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario at their annual meeting. In the same speech, McGuinty's evaluation of the New Democratic Party was just as unfavourable.

Over his last two terms, the numbers suggest the self-proclaimed "education premier" has earned the currency to talk tough.

Class sizes have decreased, standardized test scores are up and more students are graduating from the province's high schools. Last year, a study by consulting firm McKinsey and Co. even went so far as to dub Ontario's school system as one of the best in the world.

But in Annie Kidder's opinion, the province's education system can't be judged on statistics alone. From her post at the helm of an Ontario-wide education advocacy group, she argues that big ideas are just as important as data.

"What we really haven't heard from any of the parties, I think, has to do with overall vision," said the executive director of People for Education.

While rival party leaders gear up for Ontario's Oct. 6 election, proposals for the province's education system are thick on the ground.

McGuinty has pitched a student loan grace period for graduates entering the not-for-profit sector. Tim Hudak's Progressive Conservatives have vowed to increase spending on kindergarten to grade 12 by $2-billion by the end of their first term. NDP leader Andrea Horwath has taken aim at childhood obesity by stressing the importance of physical education.

Still, Kidder maintains that strengthening the province's education system isn't about offering baubles to students and teachers.

"An effective premier will understand that education is about something more than skills and information," she said. "What kind of kids are we trying to educate here? Educational platforms need to be linked with societal vision."

Measuring success

Standardized testing, says Kidder, is one of the greatest deficiencies in Ontario's school system.

Recent test results released by Ontario's Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) show 69 per cent of Grade 3 and 6 students are mastering reading, writing and math skills, up 15 percentage points since 2003.

Regardless of the numbers, Kidder says the method of testing isn't an adequate way to measure student learning.

"Politically, it's fabulous because you get this wonderfully simplistic graph of progress," she said. "But it just focuses on numeracy and literacy. Other topics tend to fall by the wayside."

Instead, Kidder suggests that Ontario experiment with sample testing -- a method used in European schools that tests select groups of students on specific topics, not just numbers and literacy.

After elementary

Ontario's colleges and universities also struggle with finding an effective way to measure student learning, says the province's former deputy minister for post-secondary education.

"Learning is not actually something we measure but it's one of a number of things we should try," said David Trick, who helped pen Academic Transformation: The Forces Reshaping Higher Education in Ontario.

Trick notes that colleges and universities keep track of whether students are dropping out or finding jobs. But he says it would be helpful to have data to track whether or not students are learning effectively.

Raising money

An increased reliance on student fundraising may also be holding Ontario schools back from being equitable places to learn, argues Kidder.

Audited financial statements show the province's public schools raised $588.4 million to boost their budgets and support charitable causes in the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

"It's a pretty core issue now because we've come to rely on parents for the most part," said Kidder.

It isn't the money itself that is problematic, says Kidder, it's the divisions created between schools.

Individual Ontario schools raised between $0 and $275,000 last year, an annual report by People for Education found.

The same report says that schools with low-income students raise, on average, less than half the amount raised in schools with fewer low-income students -- a gap that Kidder says the next Ontario government needs to reconcile.

"I'd like to know from all three parties: How much fundraising do you think is okay? Where do they draw the line?"

If elected, Horwath has pledged to review the way schools raise money as well as curb rampant school fees.

Alternative schools

When Toronto school trustees approved Canada's first all-black public school in 2007, a maelstrom of controversy followed the decision.

Proponents argued that the specialty school would prevent at-risk students from dropping out, while others dismissed the idea as segregation.

During its inception, McGuinty opposed the black-focused school but said he wouldn't prevent Toronto's public board from establishing it -- a soft stance when compared to his government's vehement opposition to funding faith-based schools.

Lee Gowers, the head of a province-wide education advocacy group, said she wishes the premier had been stronger in his resistance.

"Public education should be a good mix of everything and everybody," said the president of the Ontario Home and School Associations.

To Gowers, a shift toward more specialty schools is a disservice to Ontario students.

"Learning how to coexist with people of all different shapes, colour, money, mentalities -- that's what public education is," she said.

Support

When it comes to support and equality, Kidder's vision of public education falls in line with Gowers'. She said the province has been fairly attentive to the needs of individual students, but could go one step further for disabled students or those who are new to Canada.

"We need to start making schools hubs of support for newcomers or kids with special needs," said Kidder.

The education advocate envisions a system where parent liaisons and public health units are based inside schools and available to parents.

"Teachers could seek advice from school-based support workers who could be speaking to the public health unit," Kidder explained. "It's a way of valuing schools as community assets."

Looking ahead

Regardless of who is leading the way at Queen's Park in October, numbers suggest the next Premier of Ontario will take over a healthy education system.

Among OECD countries, the province's 15-year-olds net top scores on reading, writing and math tests. Recent standardized test scores are equally as bright for younger Ontario students.

According to People for Education, fewer students in the school's elementary school system need special education or English language support as well.

"Ontario schools have some big challenges but overall we're pretty stable," said Kidder. "Whatever party gets elected, they're inheriting a system that's in pretty good shape."