McGuinty dumbs down education

National Post - Sept. 6, 2005  
McGuinty dumbs down education  
By Frank Klees

NOTE: Frank Klees is a former Ontario cabinet minister and theConservative  MPP for the riding of Oak Ridges.; fklees@frank-klees.on.ca

During the 2003 Ontario election campaign, then-opposition leader Dalton  McGuinty promised that under a Liberal government 75% of Ontario students  would achieve the targeted success rate in standardized testing. Voters and  taxpayers at the time assumed that meant a better education for students.  Now we know that he really meant that standards would systematically be  lowered until 75% of students could reach them.

That process has now begun in earnest with the announcement from Mr.  McGuinty's Education Minister, Gerard Kennedy, that 165 courses will be made  easier - all because one of them, Grade 9 applied math, has been deemed too  hard. On Aug. 18, Mr. Kennedy told the National Post that the Grade 9 math  program acted as an "academic trap or flypaper that a lot of people got  stuck to," and said the program is at least partly to blame for the recent  increase in Ontario's dropout rate.

Since the introduction of Ontario's new curriculum by Mike Harris's  Conservative government in 1997, students have shown that they can and will  rise to the challenge of a more rigorous program.

Over the past eight years, I have watched with pride as student achievement  levels have climbed steadily. We should remember that the reason for a  revised curriculum in the '90s was to ensure that our students would be  competitive locally and internationally for tomorrow's jobs.

Grades 3 and 6 test results show steady, significant increases in the number  of students achieving the targeted proficiency score between 1998 and 2004:  from 46% to 54% in Grade 3 reading; from 43% to 64% in Grade 3 math; from  48% to 58% in Grade 6 reading; and from 46% to 57% in Grade 6 math.

Ontario's math and science scores on international tests continue to rise as  elementary students are exposed to the new curriculum in the eight years  before high school. The 2003 Third International Math and Science Survey  (TIMSS) results, released last December, showed Ontario students scored  significantly higher than in the 1995 tests and moved into the top 10 with  Singapore, Korea and Hong Kong in Grade 4 Math and Science - a spectacular  achievement for the province, which has traditionally trailed Quebec and  Alberta even within our own borders. (Ontario passed Quebec on three of the  four TIMSS measures for the first time in 2004.) Ontario university  participation rates are at their highest levels ever, with enrollments in  2004 up 5.1% over even the enormous double cohort year in 2003.

In a May 5, 2005, press release, Mr. McGuinty proudly pointed to improved  literacy scores for Ontario high school students, with the percentage of  students passing the test having increased to 82% in 2004 from 77% the  previous year. "We're clearly moving in the right direction, together," Mr.  McGuinty said. What he did not say was that for eight years the Liberals  fought tooth-and-nail every one of the curriculum and testing proposals that  have made these kinds of measured improvements possible.

On Aug. 18, Mr. Kennedy promised to begin dismantling the very curriculum  that has enabled those gains, telling the National Post that Ontario's high  school curriculum was too complex and would be made easier. English and  science would be redesigned, and he promised teachers' federations that  "curriculum expectations will become fewer."

In other words, at the very moment that Ontario students, teachers and  taxpayers are finally seeing positive, measurable results, Mr. Kennedy is  planning a wholesale dumbing-down of the system.

As a parent, I would not want to see any child held back or defeated by a  single class, in this case Grade 9 math. If the Grade 9 applied math  curriculum needs review and additional resources, Ontario should take the  steps necessary - that's why the new curriculum was designed with an ongoing  review process.

However, to dumb-down the entire curriculum is irresponsible and extreme.

By all means, Ontario must provide help to students who need it, and perform  a regular review of its curriculum, but not at the expense of the majority  of students who are rising to the challenge and learning from the current  curriculum. Ontario's self-proclaimed "Education Premier" is lowering the  bar so that his promise of a 75% pass rate can be achieved. This is politics  at its worst, and a new low for education in Ontario.