Technolandy

Day 181 (of 2024/25) and a thought about “What’s causing Canada’s education quality decline”…  spoiler: more librarians

Research from international testing shows a change in Canada’s rankings… now, I will be an early caller-outer on some of the flawed decisions on ranking school (and districts and jurisdictions) on achievement based on a standardized test… especially as those constructs are less and less the ‘norm’ of what goes on in classrooms. If they are such good measurements… encouragers… etc, why are they not more often used outside of school…? Whereas projects, presentations, and creations are reflected in the real world… just sayin’…

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/article/is-canada-losing-its-education-edge-heres-what-experts-say/

The article does show how the PISA test of 2022 continued to have canada in the top 10, whereas a recent IEA had canada in the middle of the pack of the 64 countries that took part. It is also a smaller sample size (23 000 compared to PISAs 690 000) but there are some interesting notes about the decline:

The ‘big provinces’ Que, Ont, BC, and Alta have seen less of a decline than the ‘small provinces quicker decline’. Interesting that over the past couple of years all four, but especially ont and alb have been pushing a ‘back to basics’ misstep (my opinion) rather than the broader focus on understanding how and why maths works the way it does. Spoiler: it ain’t about a textbook – there is no ‘one text to rule them all’.

The agrarian calendar continues the not-secret-issue of ‘summer learning loss’ and I can’t help but correlate the amount of ‘teacher burnout’ to the busy 10 month schedule (with two smaller breaks) and then the anxiety of 8 weeks – without paycheques for teachers… without predictability for learners… without routine of practicing… even the ‘off season’ for athletes has ongoing practice scheduled.

The article notes that there is no ‘single solution’ (and I admit, I thought the article was going to go to the simplistic ‘blame the screens’ notion) which makes me happy. Nobody’s asking, but to see an increase/return of achievement… here’s my top 5:

1. Year round calendar*: 3 months on, 1 off (Jan Feb March xAp; May June July xAug; Sept Oct Nov xDec) OR … I do have a 365 day model – in part because if child care is part of schooling (and in our province the ministries were combined) then shouldn’t we be better supporting the families that don’t have cushy Mon-Fri 9-3 jobs, but also the weekend workforce? Ask me about it someday!
2. Bring back librarians. And add more comics into the reading inventory – more comic books, less black line masters (maybe I shoulda just stopped at ‘every school should have at least one full time librarian – no matter how small) there are so many medias available and librarians are very good at finding and sharing them… and takes away the fear of some that GenderQueer might get signed out by a grade 3 student… that worry can stay with public libraries and their automatic sign out machines…😇
3. More Project Based Learning… what skills are more needed and used in the workforce – completing a multiple choice test or putting together a presentation to share to others?
4. Lean into AI and personal screens in a way that focuses on their productive elements. These can be amazing distractions… or powerful collaborators in learning journeys…
5. Focus on portfolioing your learning journeys – strategize and report out on personal goals rather than ‘by grade 8, students will….’ And admit that not all students will be ‘reading at grade level by grade 3’. Lean into the neuro-uniquenesses and how not everyone needs to do the same to be a successful learner… or even an educated citizen (Year 2000 language that I admittedly philosophically believe in and love) Study “why” things are, not memorizing a formula for two weeks…

Or we can be a metaphorical Blockbuster and look at the current impact of AI and Screens as the Netflix and decide whether or not it is a ‘neat niche market’ that can be ignored… or admit that the future is not more of what we’ve done…

*bonus of this year round schedule is that we move away from holiday observations in-school that subtly (yet in plain sight) show the governments support for one religion above all others…