By Jessica Grillanda
If you think teacher testing came out of left field, you’re right. Teacher testing in Ontario was recommended in an NDP-commissioned report.
In 1995, the Royal Commission on Learning released a 550-page report, providing today’s blueprint for elementary and secondary education in Ontario. The Harris government has now implemented many of the commission’s 167 recommendations, including a standardized curriculum and teacher testing.
The NDP government commissioned the report, For the Love of Learning, in 1993 responding to a growing public dissatisfaction, high dropout rates in secondary schools and poor national ratings of Ontario education.
In 1991, the International Education Assessment Progress rated Ontario students last in the country for math scores. Canada as a whole rated ninth out of the 14 countries evaluated.
“If Ontario had been an independent country, its score, almost 10 percent below the international average, would have put it above only the United States, Spain and Slovenia,” reads the Coalition on Educational Reform’s influential
report submitted to the commission.
This dismal ranking prompted a public outcry, as did other studies showing high dropout rates in the province
University of Ottawa education professor Sharon Cook says the Radwanski report was the dominant factor in the subsequent call for change in Ontario education. George Radwanski’s government-funded education study indicates a direct link between poor curriculum and high dropout.
Neither the coalition nor the Radwanski reports recommended teacher testing, but both called for an overhaul of the education system, including throwing out the “book” on education.
That book, commonly known as the Bible of progressive education, was the 1968 Hall-Dennis report.
The catalyst for education “reforms” in the ‘70s and ‘80s, the report proposed a “child-centred” approach to education, with flexibility in course options including more social sciences, arts and physical education.
Over the next 20 years, this loosely structured, do-it-yourself approach was getting an increasingly unfavourable public response.
By the early ‘90s, the NDP government appointed retired Liberal health minister Monique Begin and NDP activist Gerry Caplan to chair a five-member Royal Commission on Learning.
The commission, which listened to 1,400 public submissions in 27 centres across the province, found an overwhelming demand for stricter education guidelines and for a practical skill and knowledge-based curriculum, according to its report.
Commonly known as the Begin-Caplan report, it recommended standardized curri- culum and student testing, but also requested more teacher accountability.
The most controversial commission recommendation is mandatory teacher development, with re-certification every five-years. Bill 80, passed by the Harris government last June, requires teachers to complete 14 courses every five years for re-certification.
The report also recommended the creation of an independent self-regulated body to determine professional standards, certification and accreditation of teachers.
This body, created in 1996, is the Ontario College of Teachers.
In contrast to the recommendation, the college is not independent. Its authority is delegated by the province.
Teacher testing was imposed by the province over the the college’s reservations.
There are some clear differences between the Harris government’s policies and the Begin-Caplan report, but the vision of education is similar.
That vision is a “dramatically different conception of education” than that of its predecessor, the Hall-Denis report, says Cook.
Teacher testing, according to the Royal Commission on Learning, is one part of the strategy “to equip all students for the challenges of the 21st century.”