In 2023 and 2024, the Doug Ford government will change the curriculum and require school boards to report on new things
The government of Ontario, led by Premier Doug Ford, is pushing schools to focus on “getting back to the basics of education.”
This push from Ford and Education Minister Stephen Lecce will get a new boost in the 2023–2024 school year.
The government now has more power to set provincial goals for how well students do in school, and school boards are now required to report on their progress in public.
Here are some highlights:
Plans for helping students do well
Each school board must post what is called its “Student Achievement Plan.” This is a document that explains how the board plans to work on the government’s education priorities.
Those stated priorities are:
- Reading, writing, and math are the most important core academic skills.
- Getting students ready for future success by giving them what the government calls “the skills needed to succeed in life.”
- Focus on student engagement and well-being, making sure they have a safe and supportive place to learn.
Boards must also report on metrics that are important to the government’s priorities.The following are some of the statistics that boards must make public:
- The percentage of students who meet the standards on the Education Quality and Accountability Office’s (EQAO) standardized tests for the province.
- Graduation rates and the number of credits earned.
- The number of students who take part in programs that teach them job skills.
- The rates of absence, suspension, and expulsion.
In an interview, Cathy Abraham, president of the Ontario Public School Boards Association, said, “We have no problem being open about what goes on in our schools because we know we have one of the best public school systems in the world.”
Since 2020, the Ford government has given Grades 1 through 8 a new math curriculum and a new science curriculum. Changes to the elementary language curriculum will take effect in September. For the first time in a generation, cursive writing will be taught to all students.
The government is also working on letting Grade 11 students start full-time apprenticeships in skilled trades.
There are new rules about days for professional development
In Ontario, what many parents call “professional development days” are actually called “professional activity days.” On these days, there is no school for students, but teachers and administrators are still at work.
During the school year in Ontario, there are seven P.A. days. The Ministry of Education says that three of these days off must be spent on the province’s education priorities, such as literacy, math, implementing the curriculum, and making sure students are healthy and happy.School boards have the freedom to choose what to teach on the other days.
For the 2023–2024 school year, the new rules from the Ford government say that boards must tell the public about each PA day’s “topics, content, activities, guest speakers, sponsoring organizations, and published resources” at least 14 days before it happens.
The president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, Karen Littlewood, agrees with the idea of PA days.
“Professional development days should be useful and help teachers meet the needs of their students,” Littlewood said in an interview. “I think parents should be able to find out what’s going on if they want to.”
Teachers getting ready to be substitute teacher
The Ford government has also made changes so that education students can work as substitute teachers while they are still in school.
It’s a change from Ontario’s old rules, which said that teachers-in-training could only be in the classroom when a qualified teacher was there to watch them.
Littlewood is not sure if the plan will work. “You shouldn’t be in front of a class by yourself while you’re still in teacher college,” she said in an interview. “You should work with a different teacher who will be your guide or mentor.”
Monday was not a good day for an interview with Lecce.
In a statement about the new rules, he said, “We are keeping our promise to parents by putting in place new measures that will better refocus school boards on academic achievement and the development of life and job skills.”