Education minister Liz Sandals said her ministry is looking at bringing in set guidelines for the time elementary students are taught math each day.
The province, according to the Guelph MPP, has no set standards for time spent teaching math each day for grades one to six. Time allocated for math teaching is set by individual boards.
“There’s no provincial requirements for numbers,” Sandals said of math teaching time in elementary schools.
Sandals was responding to concerns raised by the provincial Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO), which found success rates have dropped in elementary math since 2010.
The EQAO found the latest results show 67 per cent of Grade 3 students met the provincial standard in mathematics, down from 71% in 2010; while 54% of Grade 6 students met the standard this year, down from 61% in 2010.
“The students struggle most when asked to apply math knowledge, for example to problem solving,” the EQAO stated in a press release.
The EQAO found improvements in reading and writing for Grade 3 and Grade 6 students over the past five years. Seventy per cent of Grade 3 students and 79% of Grade 6 students are now meeting the provincial reading standard, an increase of 8% and 7% respectively, over the past five years.
Sandals said several reports have indicated the provincial government should consider increasing math teaching times.
The education ministry has also reviewed student performances at different levels and different studies in provinces across the country.
Sandals said Ontario officials have found that Quebec students tend to score higher in math and receive about 80 minutes of instruction each day.
“When we look at high school math, Quebec does better,” she told the Advertiser in a telephone interview on Sept. 2.
“Elementary math teachers have more extensive training in math and math pedagogy.”
According to the education minister, the province spent about $4 million for additional math training for 3,000 teachers this summer. It is hoped the additional training will result in improved math scores.
Sandals said the ministry is also looking at ways for elementary school math teachers to twin the math they teach with other subjects like science to improve problem solving among students using math.
“We need our kids to be better at problem solving,” she said.
Sandals noted French school board students have shown better test scores, something she attributes to the boards’ adapting similar instruction from the Quebec standard.
She said the ministry is working with “school boards and teacher federations” in a bid to “get more training” for elementary school teachers.
The ministry has also instituted a two-year bachelor program at teachers’ colleges to allow for more training for teachers.
“Those teachers have less math training than in Quebec,” Sandals said of the differences in Ontario.
“I’ve asked my ministry to find out what’s going on,” she said of steps that can be taken to improve the math scores.
Without provincial guidelines, Sandals said board requirements for schools within their jurisdiction can vary, with math taught anywhere from “45 minutes” to “70 minutes” per day.
Sandals believes the 80-minute benchmark should be considered in Ontario.
“We should be more in line with Quebec,” she said.
