By Christie Tucker
An Ontario student who fails an exam is likely to get a “serious” talk from his or her parents. But under Ontario’s new rules, teachers who don’t pass all 14 required courses in a new professional development program, could lose their jobs.
Teachers will get five years to pass the courses. If they fail a course, they can take it again or one that fills the same requirement.
But if teachers do not pass all 14 courses, they will be suspended and possibly decertified.
Right now, teacher incompetence is supposed to be dealt with by the Ontario College of Teachers. But since its inception in 1997, the college has not held a single hearing into a teacher’s alleged incompetence.
Denys Giguere, a college spokesperson, says that is because school boards prefer to deal with teachers internally. Sometimes, he says, school boards will even move a questionable teacher from school to school rather than notify the college.
Ron Henry, vice-principal at Glashan Public School, says he has not seen that happen at the Ottawa-Carleton public school board. “Any administrators I’ve worked with have been unlikely to do that,” he says.
Giguere says he would not be surprised if a few incompetent teachers slipped through the cracks.
“They need to inform the teacher and give them a chance to correct what is wrong. It’s a time-consuming process, and difficult to carry through. It could be that school administrators are already stretched to the limit,” he says.
Currently, a public school board teacher with perceived performance problems will be notified and get help. If the school sees no improvement after six months to a year, it will recommend further action, even termination of the teacher’s contract, says Henry. A terminated teacher is unlikely to get another job with the public school board, he says.
As part of its new teacher-testing initiative, aimed at raising standards for teachers, the government has employed more than 82 “course providers” so far to help administer the courses. Providers range from school boards to education faculties.
Many providers already offer professional development and additional qualification courses teachers have been taking for years, says Giguere.
Before teacher testing was legislated in May, more than 23,000 of these courses existed. Some will qualify as required courses under the professional learning program. Others may be worth the same as two or three courses in the teacher testing program if they cover different required subjects, he said.
Based on experience with current professional-development programs, Giguere believes teachers will have no problem passing the new courses. “We know from records that the vast majority will meet the requirements quite easily,” he says.
Henry does not think the professional learning program will improve teachers’ competence. “The Ottawa-Carleton board has long had a very good professional development review plan. This is unnecessary,” he says.
The course providers will pass or fail teachers. Some evaluations will involve a written test. Others will be based on factors like performance in class or special projects.
Both core courses and options will be worth equal weight. Teachers must pass them all to be re-certified.
Giguere says the course providers will set their own evaluation standards.
But Terril Butterworth, education coordinator for the Upper Canada District school board, says her organization will not deal with evaluations until more details about course content and standards are worked out with the government in on-going meetings.
“We expect to be receiving directions about courses and evaluations,” she said. Butterworth and the other providers are still unclear about what kind of standards the government wants them to use to judge the teachers.