EDITORIAL: Ford’s reforms to math, education are welcome
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It should come as a surprise to no one that Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government is poised to overhaul the province’s math curriculum.
Ford and the Progressive Conservatives campaigned on fixing the math curriculum in last year’s election, which now sees half of all Grade 6 students fail to meet the provincial standard in annual standardized testing.
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The problem has been getting worse in recent years — 61% of Grade 6 students met the standard in 2010 — and things aren’t much better in the younger grades.
There, the number of students achieving the provincial standard in Grade 3 is down 10 points to 61%, compared to 71% in 2010.
That tells us two things.
First, the status quo is not an option.
Second, doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results — the philosophy of the previous Liberal government — is a definition of insanity.
As the Toronto Sun’s Brian Lilley reported Wednesday, a major focus of the curriculum overhaul will be to scrap so-called Discovery Math in favour of a back-to-basics approach.
This includes memorization of multiplication tables and mastering other fundamental skills, which are the building blocks to success in math.
There will also be improved math training for teachers which is vital since, as the premier noted, one-third of new teachers instructing students in preparation for the Grade 6 math test today are failing it, as well.
New teachers will be required to pass a math proficiency test by 2020, and all schools will get additional support in teaching math, with a special program developed for 1,000 of the province’s lowest performing schools.
The government is also developing a digital curriculum to help parents understand what is being taught to their children in the math curriculum, so they can help them with their homework.
The acid test will be whether math scores start to improve going forward under the reformed curriculum, with the understanding that some patience is required.
After all, the system has been going downhill for years when it comes to the teaching of math and can’t be fixed overnight.
Thus, it will take more than a year to two to reverse the decline and start to improve.
But the government’s initiatives are a step in the right direction.
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