Online Clearing House
May 22, 2014
Responding To Wynne’s Austerity And Hudak’s Job Cuts
“Building Better Schools”
Where Does Bill 122 Take Us?
PISA Creates Another Crisis
Child Care’s Rough Ride
Youth Unemployment And What To Do About It
The Skills Gap?
CEOs And School “Reform”
Social Class and Education in America
Diane Ravitch’s Reign of Error
The Corporate University
A Seattle Teacher Boycott of Standardized Testing
It’s hard to know how to respond to the current Ontario election’s disappearing act when it comes to education policy. Education issues are hardly visible anywhere.
Nigel Barriffe (who is running, with our support, as an ONDP candidate in Etobicoke North) is trying, however, to keep these issues alive in his part of the part of the world (www.nigelbarriffe.com). Attached are two pieces from Nigel: In the first, he introduces Doug Little’s list of “moderate progressive” reforms that have a realistic chance of implementation. In the second he responds to Kathleen Wynne’s austerity agenda in education and Tim Hudak’s plan to cut 100,000 public sector jobs, with the biggest bite coming from education. Both pieces are worth reading.
Ontario’s elementary teachers have made a helpful contribution to a province-wide discussion of our school system by producing a full-scale election program for school reform entitled Building Better Schools. ETFO has also produced a short guide to Bill 122, also attached, which should help readers come to grips with the new framework for bargaining among school boards, their employees and the education ministry.
An issue that really ought to be on the table in this election is the destructive impact of EQAO’s standardized testing. The elementary teachers’ union – with solid membership support – and the NDP are beginning to move away from this testing. Both, unfortunately, are still willing to accept random testing as a sop to hardline neo-liberals, even though most teachers and the NDP recognize that random testing is just as mindless as full-scale standardized testing (though not as draconian) and still points teachers in the wrong direction. In this issue, we’re including Ontario secondary teacher Gord Bambridge’s recent analysis of the impact of EQAO’s international partner in standardized testing, PISA (the Programme for International Student Assessment). This program strengthens business influence in our schools, undermines local democracy, presses false standards on both teachers and students, and effectively “deskills” both and guts their programs.
Issues of provincial childcare should also be central to this campaign. Martha Friendly here outlines “the dismal state” of child care programs both Canada-wide and here in Ontario. She also points to the failure of the provincial government to implement its program of “full-day early learning.” This has turned into “full-day kindergarten,” still inadequately funded, while child care has been “moved to the back burner.” Friendly calls on all parties in this election to develop “a robust, long-term, evidence-based ECEC policy framework with principles, goals and targets, timetables and sustained financial commitments” and to include child-friendly staff ratios and decent pay for childcare workers.
Another fundamental issue is that of youth unemployment, which is both a federal and a provincial responsibility. On this subject we’re attaching Armine Yalnizyan’s analysis of what the federal government could do, “if it really wanted to reduce youth unemployment.” The next Ontario government would do well take Yalnizyan’s recommendations to heart. Readers should also look over Trish Hennessy’s figures on “the skills gap trope,” especially as they affect younger workers. We now know the federal Tories have been fudging Canada’s “skills gap” figures to promote a low-wage temporary workers’ program, and Hennessy’s figures reveal the complexity of the issue of work skills, particularly the pressures on corporations to deskill their workforce, and the urgency with which we must tackle it, not only in our workplaces but also in our schools.
In dealing with how schools try to produce a corporate workforce – “human capital” as the Education Ministry likes to describe it – we need to recognize that the corporations themselves are not planning any kid-friendly initiatives on this front. On this subject, we offer Erika Shaker’s tongue-in-check reflections on the suggestion that CEOs improve pedagogy and student engagement as part of their general social outreach. We also present Donald Gutstein’s examination of Galen Weston’s adventures in educational do-gooding. We learn how Weston and his family are massively funding the Fraser Institute’s programs to destabilize the public education system and promote school choice and vouchers. Not a happy story.
In these election moments, it’s good to see the emergence of the Campaign for Commercial Free Schools, whose recent update you can find below. It would be valuable, we think, for the CCFS to ask the candidates in this election where they stand on fundraising, naming rights, and advertising policies as they apply to school spaces. So far, there is no mention of the issue from any of the parties.
As a regular part of this Clearing House, we take you south of the border, where so many destructive initiatives in education take place and then migrate northwards, if they aren’t already flourishing here. Matt Bruenig provides a dramatic set of graphs showing the impact of America’s social class structure on its children and their education. Gord Bambrick reviews Diane Ravitch’s Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools. Noam Chomsky writes on the corporatization of the university, with its increasing reliance on cheap labour, large classes, expensive layers of bureaucracy and management, and growing tuition fees. He calls instead for “shared governance,” worker control, and honest discovery in academic work that’s loved by both teachers and students. Finally, from Seattle, Diane Brooks brings us some good news – a teachers’ boycott of standardized testing that sparked a nation-wide movement.
Don’t forget: Back issues of Education Action: Toronto Online Clearing House can be found on our website: educationactiontoronto.com. And, if you know anyone or any group who might be interested in receiving articles from us, please send us along their emails.
In solidarity,
George Martell, David Clandfield, Faduma Mohamed
Education Action: Toronto
Nigel Barriffe
One of the most interesting educational blogs in Ontario is by Doug Little. It’s called The Little Education Report (http://thelittleeducationreport.com/). A few days ago, Doug set out what he called “a moderate progressive agenda” in education. He figured it might be possible to implement this agenda in some kind of Liberal/NDP agreement (accord, coalition, back room discussions).
I think there is little likelihood the Liberals could be persuaded to move in the direction Little proposes. Wynne and Co. seem to me to be moving in exactly the opposite direction — more “austerity” in education, more emphasis on standardized test scores, more bureaucratic control from Queen’s Park, more links to the private sector, etc. At the same time, I’d argue that the recommendations Little puts forward might be a very good place for a new NDP government to start in strengthening our school system.
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reading: Nigel Barriffe – Where Should We Begin In Education Reform? |
students to really engage in this election.
Nigel Barriffe
I think most of us teachers, school board workers, parents and older students – if we have our ear to the ground in this election – know that Kathleen Wynne has an “austerity” agenda waiting for us, if her government wins a majority this time around.
“Austerity is alive and well in Ontario when it comes to public education”, says Ontario secondary teachers’ president Paul Elliott. Wynne’s last budget, he argues, “does nothing to restore the shortfall created by inadequate funding through the Grants for Student Needs (GSNs) announced in March.”
He’s talking about the annual grants that fund all Ontario public schools. For Elliott, this means that “the compensation cuts imposed in 2013 have been unilaterally extended by the government well beyond the end of the agreed-upon two-year term. By keeping our members frozen on the pay grid, the government is setting the stage for unnecessary conflict between OSSTF/FEESO and local school boards in September.”
Not restoring last year’s shortfall also means more cutbacks across the entire provincial school system this year.
Remember that Wynne has made no serious promises for education in this campaign, even as an election ploy.
Bill 1l5 was just a prelude to what we can expect from the Liberals.
And now we have Tim Hudak’s promise of 100,000 job cuts from the province’s public sector workforce. His cuts are going to hammer the public school system, along with health and social services.
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reading: Nigel Barriffe - It’s time for teachers, education workers, parents and older students to really engage in this election. |
ETFO, Introduction: Sam Hammond, President
The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) has prepared this education platform to contribute to public discourse about how to make our public schools the best they can be. Ontario faces many challenges. Few are as important as ensuring that our public schools are able to fulfill their responsibility to teach basic skills, and foster creativity, innovation, a love of learning, and a commitment to full participation in our democratic society. Public education should create equal opportunity so that all students can be successful learners and reach their full potential.
In Ontario we are fortunate to have a strong public school system. ETFO — representing 76,000 teachers, early childhood educators, and educational and professional support personnel — is committed to making it even stronger. ETFO believes Ontario can do a better job of addressing the learning needs of our diverse student population and ensuring that students are well-prepared for higher education, training, and citizenship. Strengthening the education system will contribute to a healthy, vibrant society in the future. Prior to the 2011 provincial election, ETFO released an education platform – Building Better Schools. This document revisits the same issues, but updates them to reflect the current school context and recent research. This updated education agenda also speaks to the important role that unions play in promoting healthy and safe schools and advocating for public education.
ETFO’s platform proposals profile those issues our members believe will improve the quality of programs, enhance inclusiveness and equity in our elementary schools, and engage all students to become productive lifelong learners.
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reading: ETFO – Our Platform – Building Better Schools |
Bargaining Act.
ETFO
What is the School Boards’ Collective Bargaining Act, 2014?
On October 22, 2013, the Minister of Education introduced provincial bargaining legislation in the Ontario Legislature. The legislation, called the School Boards Collective Bargaining Act, 2014, is also referred to as “Bill 122”.
For more background information about the School Boards Collective Bargaining Act, 2014, and for information about the recent history of education sector collective bargaining in Ontario, click here: http://www.etfo.ca/bargainingandagreements/bill122/pages/default.aspx
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reading: ETFO – Understanding Bill 122 |
Gord Bambrick
Towering over the landscape of education reform these days is PISA (the Programme for International Student Assessment). Its international rankings in math, science and literacy are held as the gold standard of education quality measurement, and this gives the PISA test-makers enormous power over how education policy is set. As a Globe and Mail editorial explains, "Andreas Schleicher is arguably the most influential person in global education policy today. The German statistician has never presided over a classroom or served as a minister of education. But as the man who designed and oversees the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), he holds sway over the direction of education reform around the world."
But is a set of assessments, administered to a sampling of fifteen-year-olds, every three years, something we can trust to be reliable or objective?
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reading: Gord Bambrick – The Leaning Tower of PISA Creates Another Crisis |
Martha Friendly
Child care in Ontario has been having a rough ride for some years. Most recently, the current election call illustrates the precariousness of child care in the absence of a federal role and without solid, well-developed provincial policy. In Ontario and Canada-wide, the state of child care is dismal in just about every way - spaces unavailable, quality uneven, wildly varied but mostly unaffordable parent fees, low staff wages, weak regulation. Full-day kindergarten-now in seven provinces-follows schedules that leave child care needs unmet while children younger than five (or four in Ontario) are left out. Integration of kindergarten and child care is at best superficial-not the "strong and equal partnership" we'd hoped for. Suitable inclusive options for children with disabilities are scarce. Many (or most) families rely on unregulated arrangements with no public oversight while quality in regulated child care is often not high enough to be called "developmental".
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reading: Martha Friendly – Child Care’s Rough Ride |
Bruce Forsyth
… We are reviewing and considering the implications of some recently-published US research by the National Education Policy Centre. The NEPC annual report on school commercialism largely validates many of our current concerns about the proliferation of advertising exposure to children through various forms of media. In particular, the use of “pop-ups” and online polling is increasingly taking advantage of students’ trust in pseudo-educational online resources to promote their private agendas. Oversight mechanisms in Ontario will certainly need to be reviewed in light of these new threats to the sanctity of our children’s educational space….
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reading: Bruce Forsyth – Campaign for Commercial Free Schools: Highlights |
To Reduce Youth Unemployment
Armine Yalnizyan
Young Canadians are getting fewer of the jobs that are being created. And there are roughly 265,000 fewer young people with jobs than in 2008. This is almost un- changed since July 2009, the trough of the recession. Over two-thirds of the vanished jobs were full-time positions.
The youth cohort is the only group which experienced continued job loss over the past year.
It is striking that, at least until the 2011–12 scholastic year, the reduction in the number of young people with jobs was practically matched by increases in enrolments at post-secondary educational institutes.
This does not let legislators off the hook. Young people are clearly doing everything they can to attain or upgrade skills to make themselves more employable.
It has not been enough to prevent unemployment or underemployment.
And it is a costly gamble. Yesterday the Hill Times reported that student debt is rising since the recession. The group with the most debt on graduation, over $30,000, saw the fastest growth since 2009, up by 33%.
Not surprisingly, they are grabbing what employment they can. Many are under- employed, in terms of hours or skills.
Solutions for youth unemployment often focus on training and education, changing the supply of labour. But the demand for labour is changing too.
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reading: Armine Yalnizyan – What The Federal Government Could Do If It Really Wanted To Reduce Youth Unemployment |
Trish Hennessy
23%
…. Percentage of Canadians aged 15-29 who are estimated to have been underemployed in 2013. About a third of young Canadians work in part-time jobs, many of which are low paying and temporary….
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reading: Trish Hennessy – The Skills-Gap Trope |
Erika Shaker
Parents, take note! Your search for clarity in the education debates is finally over. The Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) commissioned a report a few weeks ago that set out a fairly bleak picture of general dissatisfaction with public schools and then concluded with a series of recommendations about how to “fix” the problem.
You know, by measuring teacher quality through student outcomes, in addition to having students and other “impartial” parties judge a teacher’s performance through more frequent (possibly surprise) evaluations…and then assigning bonuses to those educators deemed worthy. Because: incentives!
Note the “finally! Enough resources for field trips and extracurricular activities” kind of incentives—I’m talking cold, hard cash, people. After all, what teacher won’t be incentivized to find an hour or two out of their day in which to be extra fabulous — in addition to coaching, tutoring kids after class, and scrounging for change to buy lunch or find bus fare for another student—if it means a little sumpin’-sumpin’ on their paycheque?
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reading: Erika Shaker – Problem? Ask a CEO |
Donald Gutstein
You've seen him in television ads hyping President's Choice dessert ideas, naming fake supermarkets after enthusiastic customers, sitting down with moms around the kitchen table and talking to President's Choice farmers on their hormone-free farms.
He's Galen Weston Jr., executive chairman of Loblaw Companies Ltd. And while he, or his media handlers, hone the image of Galen among the common folk -- top shirt button always undone -- the reality is that he's next in line to head Canada's second-wealthiest family, with a 2014 net worth of $10.4 billion, a 26-percent increase over 2013.
The Weston family does many good things with its vast fortune, such as fund health research, university scholarships and private land conservation. At the same time, though, it has probably done more to undermine public education in Canada than anyone else. The family foundation has donated nearly $22 million to the Fraser Institute for its programs to destabilize the public education system and promote school choice and vouchers.
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reading: Donald Gutstein – Follow the Money, Part 1 -- The Weston Family |
Matt Bruenig
I am not usually one for a long charticle, but occasionally it's worthwhile to step back and summarize what we know. Here [in this series of charts] I tackle America's class system, across the life cycle:
1. Poverty Spikes Stress in Children
2. Income Inequality Means Enrichment Inequality
3. Rapid Schooling Divergence
4. Logical Consequence of Divergence: Drop Outs
5. Further Behind Than Ever Come College Time
6. Traditional College Students: Rich Kids
7. Getting In Doesn’t Mean Finishing
8. Surprise: Poor Kids = Poor Adults
9. Even The Strivers Don’t Do As Well
10. Inheritance Flows In
11. An Adulthood of Serious Inequality
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reading: Matt Bruenig – America's Class System Across The Life Cycle |
A Review of Diana Ravitch’s Reign of Error
Gord Bambrick
When she was the Assistant Education Secretary, under Republican President George Herbert Bush, Diane Ravitch was a strong advocate for testing and accountability, but her new book, Reign of Error, begins with an admission of error in supporting that agenda after she saw it being
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hijacked and used by big business to justify "the hoax of privatization," spearheaded by wealthy philanthropists, such as Bill Gates, powerful corporations, such as Pearson, and financial giants, such as Goldman Sachs. The pretext for corporate reform is always that it is a way to fight poverty and racial marginalization by putting more skilled workers (a.k.a. "human capital") into the workforce. |
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reading: Gord Bambrick – Review of Diana Ravitch’s Reign of Error |
Noam Chomsky
That’s part of the business model. It’s the same as hiring temps in industry or what they call “associates” at Wal-Mart, employees that aren’t owed benefits. It’s a part of a corporate business model designed to reduce labor costs and to increase labor servility. When universities become corporatized, as has been happening quite systematically over the last generation as part of the general neoliberal assault on the population, their business model means that what matters is the bottom line. The effective owners are the trustees (or the legislature, in the case of state universities), and they want to keep costs down and make sure that labor is docile and obedient. The way to do that is, essentially, temps. Just as the hiring of temps has gone way up in the neoliberal period, you’re getting the same phenomenon in the universities. The idea is to divide society into two groups. One group is sometimes called the “plutonomy” (a term used by Citibank when they were advising their investors on where to invest their funds), the top sector of wealth, globally but concentrated mostly in places like the United States. The other group, the rest of the population, is a “precariat,” living a precarious existence.
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reading: Noam Chomsky – On Hiring Faculty off the Tenure Track |
Sparked a Nationwide Movement
Diane Brooks
Life felt eerie for teachers at Seattle’s Garfield High in the days following their unanimous declaration of rebellion last winter against standardized testing. Their historic press conference, held on a Thursday, had captured the attention of national TV and print media. But by midday Monday, they still hadn’t heard a word from their own school district’s leadership.
Then an email from Superintendent José Banda hit their in-boxes. Compared with a starker threat issued a week later, with warnings of 10-day unpaid suspensions, this note was softly worded. But its message was clear: a teacher boycott of the district’s most-hated test—the MAP, short for Measures of Academic Progress—was intolerable.
Jittery teachers had little time to digest the implications before the lunch bell sounded, accompanied by an announcement over the intercom: a Florida teacher had ordered them a stack of hot pizzas, as a gesture of solidarity.
“It was a powerful moment,” said history teacher Jesse Hagopian, a boycott leader. “That’s when we realized this wasn’t just a fight at Garfield; this was something going on across the nation. If we back down, we’re not just backing away from a fight for us. It’s something that educators all over see as their struggle too. I think a lot of teachers steeled their resolve, that we had to continue.”
Parents, students, and teachers all over the country soon would join the “Education Spring” revolt. As the number of government-mandated tests multiplies, anger is mounting over wasted school hours, “teaching to the test,” a shrinking focus on the arts, demoralized students, and perceptions that teachers are being unjustly blamed for deeply rooted socioeconomic problems.
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reading: Diane Brooks – These Seattle Teachers Boycotted Standardized Testing— and Sparked a Nationwide Movement |
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