Investing in Canadian Education: Whole-System Reform in Ontario

• In Event: 63.056 - Is the Invisible Hand a Magic Wand? Privatization Versus Public Investments in National Educational Systems

Abstract

As a federal system and the second largest country in the world, Canada includes ten provinces and three territories. Canada’s vast scale, diverse populations, and provincial jurisdiction over education create a complex situation for discussing Canadian education. Nevertheless, students across Canada perform well on PISA, TIMSS and other international measures of achievement, with a relatively low gradient of test-score inequality (OECD, 2007). Canada also has a corresponding high level of investment in education of around 7% of GDP and pays teachers more than the U.S. does.

Investment in the education system has led to moderate satisfaction overall, with Canadians more satisfied with their teachers than the overall system. This may have to do with strategies employed in places like Ontario, which had a major shift in 2003 for 72 districts serving over two million students. Previous reform efforts used a system of pressure and supports with initial test score gains that plateaued, likely due to over prescription leading to a lack of motivation in teachers and principals. The focus then shifted towards system-wide improvement consisting of identifying and implementing effective practices with joint ownership between educators and administrators in the process.

In particular, this whole system reform process incorporated six fundamental priorities, summarized as, "First, develop the entire teaching profession … A combination of incentives must be used to attract, retain, and develop the teaching profession … Second, focus on a small number of ambitious priorities, and set measurable, targeted, ongoing goals in partnership with each and every school and district. Our goals are literacy, numeracy, and high school graduation … Third, a two-way street between instruction and assessment should be the centerpiece of a capacity-building strategy … The fourth fundamental recognizes that distributive coordinated leadership at all levels of the system is key ... Fifth, establish a focused, mostly nonpunitive, comprehensive, relentless intervention strategy … Sixth, use money to drive reform only in the service of the previous five fundamentals … Otherwise, it will be squandered."

Based on these six principles, Ontario now measures education results differently. Instead of sanctioning schools based on test scores (as in the U.S.), Ontario created a data system enabling schools to compare themselves longitudinally with demographically similar schools. In aggregate, Ontario’s new approach has produced impressive results. For example,
125,000 elementary students who have higher proficiency in reading and writing than would have been the case without the strategy; a further 93,000 students graduated from high school because of the strategy … the number of low-performing elementary schools eligible for the turnaround program — the Ontario Focused Partnership Program — has been reduced from its starting high of 800 schools to its current low of 87 schools, even though the bar has been set even higher.

These results show that, in the context of the Canadian system, Ontario has used increased investments in whole system reform to produce a higher quality, more equitable education system. The symposium presenter will add additional findings and explanations to those discussed above.

Author

• Michael Fullan, OISE/University of Toronto