Ontario Education Improvement
“We are improving each year.
People are getting smarter.
We are starting to think school has potential!”
- Ontario elementary student 2010
Dr. Mary Jean Gallagher
Chief Student Achievement Officer
Assistant Deputy Minister
Student Achievement Division
Denmark, February 2015
Deck D
Ontario Ministry of Education
1
A Student’s Voice:
“Education is not just about gaining
knowledge from a textbook but taking
action by applying our knowledge to
make an impact.”
- Ontario secondary student, Minister’s Student Advisory Council Representative, 2014
2
Snapshot – Province of Ontario
Ontario has:
• 40% of Canada’s 33.6 million people (it is the most populous province)
• In 2013, Ontario received 40.0% (103,402) of permanent resident
admissions to Canada (258,619)
• Over 1 million square kilometres of land
• 2.1 million students
• English is not the first language of many of our students
• Almost 126,000 teachers (unionized teaching and support staff)
• About 5,000 schools in 72 school districts
• Operational Funding of $22.53B (CDN) in 2014-15
3
Our Vision: Achieving Excellence
• Learners…will develop the knowledge, skills and
characteristics that will lead them to become
personally successful, economically
productive and actively engaged citizens
• Development of a high-quality
teaching profession and strong
leadership at all levels of the system
• High expectations and success for all
• Responsive, high quality, accessible and integrated from
early learning and child care to adult education
4
Ontario’s Renewed Goals for Education
• Achieving Excellence: Children and students of all ages will achieve
high levels of academic performance, acquire valuable skills, and
demonstrate good citizenship. Educators will be supported in learning
continuously and will be recognized as among the best in the world.
• Ensuring Equity: All children and students will be inspired to reach their
full potential, with access to rich learning experiences that begin at birth and
continue into adulthood.
• Promoting Well-Being: All children and students will develop enhanced
mental and physical health, a positive sense of self and belonging, and the
skills to make positive choices.
• Enhancing Public Confidence: Ontarians will continue to have
confidence in a publicly funded education system that helps develop new
generations of confident, capable, and caring citizens.
5
Signs
of
Signs of
Success
success
6
Elementary Outcomes: Achievement Results
Over 170,000 more students at provincial standard
4 key levers for
elementary reform:
1. Improving
classroom
teaching and
learning
2. Improving
school
effectiveness
3. Leadership
capacity
building
4. Research and
evaluation 7
Secondary Outcomes: Achievement Results
Provincial Graduation Rate
6 key levers for
secondary reform:
1. Leadership
infrastructure
2. Engaging and
relevant
programming
3. Effective instruction
4. Focused
Interventions for
students at risk of
not graduating
5. Legislation and
policy development
6. Research,
monitoring and 8
evaluation
Capacity Building:
Lessons from Ontario
Ontario’s strong PISA results would suggest that this emphasis on building the
critical thinking and problem-solving skills of teachers has strengthened the
capacity of teachers to enable the development of these same kinds of skills in
their students.
From OECD Report: Strong Performers and Successful Reformers in
Education: Lessons from PISA for Japan – 2011
Today, Ontario’s publicly funded education system – acknowledged as one of
the best in the world – partners with parents, guardians and communities to
develop graduates who are personally successful, economically productive
and actively engaged citizens.
From Achieving Excellence, 2014
(Ontario Ministry of Education)
9
How We’ve Done It…
10
Levers to Successful
Improvement Systems
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
A small number of ambitious goals
Leadership at all levels
High standards and expectations
Investment in leadership and capacity building related to
instruction
Mobilizing data and effective practices as a strategy for
improvement
Intervention in a non-punitive manner
Reducing distractions
Being transparent, relentless and increasingly challenging
11
1. A Small Number of Ambitious Goals
Ontario’s New Education Vision, 2014
• Achieve excellence - High levels of student achievement, professional
excellence
– 75% of students with high level of literacy and numeracy skill by age 12
– 85% of students graduating from high school within 5 years of starting
– Students who are personally successful, economically productive, actively
engaged citizens
• Ensure equity - reduced gaps in student achievement
• Promote Student Well-Being
• Enhanced public confidence in education
12
2. Leadership at All Levels
A guiding coalition at the top:
• Premier
• Minister of Education
• Deputy Minister
• Chief Student Achievement Officer
Distributed leadership with a focus on teaching and learning:
• School Districts
• School Principals
• Teachers
13
3. High Standards and Expectations
•
•
•
•
Standards based curriculum
Transparent standard of performance
Independent assessments of student achievement
Provincial standards of literacy and numeracy
require creative thinking, problem solving, higher
order thinking skills
14
4.
Leadership and Capacity Building Related to
Instruction – Focus, Alignment and Coherence
15
4. Leadership and Capacity Building Related to Instruction –
School Improvement Planning As An Engagement Tool
Goals
Targeted, EvidenceBased Strategies
Needs Assessment
•
•
•
•
•
Resources
Student achievement data
Demographic data
Program data
Perceptual data
Analysis of data
Professional
Learning
Evaluation
Monitoring16
Responsibility
4. Leadership and Capacity Building Related to Instruction –
K - 6 Literacy and Numeracy
Improving classroom teaching and learning
– Collaborative inquiry
– Tutoring
– Resources: monographs, DVDs,
online supports
– Direct program supports
– Research
– Supports for teacher professional
learning
Improving School Effectiveness
– Targeted interventions
– Student voice
– Parent engagement
– Planning tools and processes
– Networking schools
– Collaborative professionalism
Leadership Capacity Building
– Ontario Leadership Framework
– School Effectiveness Leads
– Student Achievement Officers
– Supports for principal
professional learning
17
4. Leadership and Capacity Building Related to Instruction –
7 - 12 Student Success
School culture and the four
pathways
– Student Success Leads, teachers and
teams
– Student Success Education Officers
– Career/life planning for all students
– Parent engagement
Interventions for students at risk
of not graduating
– Credit recovery
– Caring adult
– Re-engagement in high school
Engaging and relevant
programming
– Experiential and co-operative
learning (e.g., SHSM)
– Student voice
– Alternative, adult and continuing
education
Effective instruction
– Differentiated instruction
– Professional learning cycle
– Literacy and mathematics
professional learning4
18
Engaging and Relevant Programming:
Experiential Education
•
Experiential learning is any activity in which students learn from an authentic, hands
on experience, reflect on the learning, and then apply that learning to new situations.
•
Types of experiential learning may include the following:
– Educational programs linking to work and career – applying curriculum and skills from
the classroom in a ‘real world’ practical context
– Volunteer experience – engaging in activities in the community to develop new skills, and
applying those skills to new contexts opportunities/experiences
– Project-based, cross curricular learning –
approaching a project/task from a mutli-disciplinary
perspective and integrating a variety of sources and
contexts
– Student voice, student inquiry – identifying and
engaging in experiential learning opportunities that are
student-directed/ selected, and reflecting on these
19
Specialist High Skills Majors (SHSM)
“…students enrolled in SHSM programs appear to improve their performance in terms of average course marks and
rates of credit accumulation compared to those not enrolled; the SHSM programs are attracting higher proportions of
males, students with a special education classification, and students from applied (college or workplace) streams
compared to the general student population.” (Research funded by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario)
20
Dual Credit Programs
•
•
Dual Credit programs allow students while still at secondary school to take college or
apprenticeship courses that count towards both their OSSD and post-secondary certificate,
diploma, degree or apprenticeship certificate of qualification.
All seventy school boards that have secondary schools and all 24 Ontario colleges of applied arts
and technology are involved in providing secondary school students with dual credit learning
opportunities.
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
2011-12
2012-13*
361
2,500
4,300
4,500
7,500
12,800
16,000
17,500
Dual Credit
Funding
Only
$1M
$4M
$8M
$8M
$17M
$25M
$32M
$32M
SCWI
Funding in
Total
$3M
$7M
$12M
$19M
$27M
$30M
$37M
Student
Enrolment
* Projected numbers
$36M
2013-14*
2014-15*
21,000
21,400
$32M
$32M
$36M
$36M
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5. Mobilizing Data and Effective Practices
As a Strategy For Improvement
Provincial Results for Junior Writing (English-Language)
100
• Building a data
system
90
– Assessments
– Tracking data
70
87
80
60
50
78
75
70
64
60
Girls
54
46
• Precise Teaching
to meet students’
needs
40
44
All
46
Boys
SpecEd
ESL/ELL
30
First Nations
24
20
10
12
0
22
5. Mobilizing Data and Effective Practices
As a Strategy For Improvement
• Building on
evidence-based
culture
• Research
Practice
24
5. Mobilizing Data and Effective Practices
As a Strategy For Improvement
Our Shared Beliefs:
• All students can succeed.
• Each student has his or her own unique patterns of learning.
• Successful instructional practices are founded on evidence-based research,
tempered by experience.
• Universal design and differentiated instruction are effective and interconnected
means of meeting the learning or productivity needs of any group of students.
• Classroom teachers are the key educators for a student’s literacy and numeracy
development.
• Classroom teachers need the support of the larger community to create a learning
environment that supports all students.
• Fairness is not sameness.
- From Learning For All: A Guide to Effective Assessment and Instruction for All Students,24
Kindergarten to Grade 12 (2010), Ontario Ministry of Education
5. Mobilizing Data and Effective Practices
As a Strategy For Improvement
- From Learning For All: A Guide to Effective Assessment and Instruction for All Students, 25
Kindergarten to Grade 12 (2010), Ontario Ministry of Education
5. Mobilizing Data and Effective Practices
As a Strategy For Improvement
- From Learning For All: A Guide to Effective Assessment and Instruction for All Students, 26
Kindergarten to Grade 12 (2010), Ontario Ministry of Education
6.
Intervention in a Non-Punitive Manner
Ontario Focused Intervention Partnership (OFIP)
What:
•
•
•
•
2003-04: 760 schools with <33% of students at levels 3 & 4
2012-13: 87 schools with <50% of students at levels 3 & 4 for two consecutive years
2013-14: 69 schools with <50% of students at levels 3 & 4 for two consecutive years
2014-15: 63 schools with <50% of students at levels 3 & 4 for two consecutive years
How:
•
•
•
•
•
Intervention strategies based on needs identified at school level
Completion of an action plan, including requested LNS support
Participation of principal & Supervisory Officer in learning opportunities
Participation in school-based professional learning communities
Participation of the school teams in formal and informal networked learning
opportunities.
27
6.
Intervention in a Non-Punitive Manner
Student Success School Support Initiative (SSI)
What:
• SSI is a strategic intervention that provides differentiated support to schools where student
performance in Grade 9 and 10 applied classes is below the provincial rate and students
are therefore not on target to graduate in 4 or 5 years
Result:
• Improved student achievement in a majority of participating schools
• Enhanced principal instructional leadership capacity
• Enhanced learning and teaching practices
How:
• Strategic and targeted professional learning sessions for principals and professional
learning teams
• Focus on tracking and monitoring student achievement data
• Focus on student intellectual engagement in their learning
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7. Supporting Conditions and
Reducing Distractions
• Aboriginal Education
• Ontario Leadership Strategy
• Safe Schools & Anti Bullying
• Governance Legislation
• Healthy Schools
• Research Strategy
• Community Use of Schools
• Equity Policy and Initiatives
• Anti Poverty Agenda
• Mental Health Strategy
• Full day Kindergarten
• Promoting Well-Being
• Negotiations and collective
agreements
29
8. Being Transparent, Relentless and
Increasingly Challenging
• All children and students can
learn
• A sense of urgency
• Sustaining and extending our
reforms
30
Thank you!
For further information contact:
Mary Jean Gallagher
1-416-325-9964
maryjean.gallagher@ontario.ca
Or contact executive assistant:
Josie Vite
1-416-327-5317
josie.vite@ontario.ca
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