Several media outlets are currently running stories regarding the continuing lackluster performance of Canadian students in the field of math, but only a few can articulate the actual reasons why the problem is getting worse instead of better.
International math test scores from the OECD show a steady decline among 15-year-old Canadian students from 2003 to 2018.
To explain away the documented deterioration of math education, those responsible have employed two strategies. The first, undertaken by staff at the Toronto District School Board’s math department (among others) has been to denounce standardized tests as a manifestation of racial bias and white privilege. It is a bizarre claim, a clear grasping at straws. The second is to hide the decline of educational quality with grade inflation, which has now reached stratospheric levels.
I fear for the future. TDSB is total garbage.
Its not the education.
Import the 3rd world, become…
This is the big one.
40% of my daughters K-6 school speaks another language at home. They are showing up not knowing English.
The parents just assume the schools will educate their kids but the drag of diversity has got to be a factor.
We need a ten year moratorium on all immigration.
The share of immigrant students has increased in Canada to 34% in 2022 (30% in 2012)
[…]
In mathematics, the average difference in performance between immigrant and non-immigrant students was 12 score points in favour of immigrant students, a significant difference. After accounting for students’ socio-economic profile, a significant difference of 16 score points in favour of immigrant students was observed.
In reading, the average difference in performance between immigrant and non-immigrant students was 11 score points in favour of immigrant students, a significant difference. After accounting for students’ socio-economic profile, a significant difference of 16 score points in favour of immigrant students was observed.
https://www.oecd.org/publication/pisa-2022-results/country-notes/canada-901942bb/#section-d1e307
“After accounting for socioeconomic profile”
If you understood what that means you would not be using this as a defence.
Garbage in = garbage out. No difference with human intelligence or artificial intelligence.
Even gourmet food soon spoils if left with garbage….
+++Davis
Davis
And that applies to school and at home.
Bang on DAVIS…
100% spot on.
Yank here, looking at the scores for the USA as well as Canada.
My beliefs in the things that affect education outcomes is confirmed once again. Natural talent, of course, is a key. But being born into a community that has decent values, into a family that has stability and values and structure, make all of the difference in the world.
In the USA, Utah (with all of its intact Mormon families) spends bottom-5 every year and gets top-5 results. Washington DC, by a wide margin, spends the most per student and gets bottom-5 results (and that’s even with all of the educational opportunities in DC, such as the Smithsonian museums!).
Folks can propose whatever solutions from the Left or the Right, spend whatever amount of money that they want (and the USA spends a boatload!) but if the community and family values are poor, the education will be poor.
You said it.
Geek
Spot on!
My friend , an immigrant, has a son who just finished his first year at uni, and had his first paper published. Strong family values for sure.
Bang on..!!
And there something to be said about Early age rote Math learning, along with Long style division, and teaching kids how to divide a fraction by a fraction (invert one and cross multiply no.?).
The utter insanity I’ve seen lately re: Mathematics is just unbelievable.
// International math test scores [link] from the OECD show a steady decline among 15-year-old Canadian students from 2003 to 2018. //
The link to the Fraser Institute doesn’t make clear that lower scores are occurring almost across the board, at least in math, with the partial exception of Asia.
Comparing countries in Math, Reading & Science:
https://www.oecd.org/pisa/OECD_2022_PISA_Results_Comparing%20countries%E2%80%99%20and%20economies%E2%80%99%20performance%20in%20mathematics.pdf
Most parents are not aware of what is being taught to their children. They are shown what is supposed to be taught, and assume that the curriculum is the end of the story, BUT it is not being followed. Take math as an example. The parents are shown a typical problem like this one: “Your class is going to an event and it costs 30 dollars per student to enter. There are 30 children in the class. How much money must the class raise to go to the event?” And the parents assume that their child has been shown the solution and how to derive it.
BUT… that is not what is covered in class. The teacher, being a SJW, raises other issues and never ever solves the presented problem. Issues like: “One of your classmates is Muslim and the event has decided Christian overtones. How do you think the event makes your classmate feel? Should they be forced to participate?” A thousand and one objections are raised of varying degrees and the real issue, can the student solve the mathematical problem, is never discussed, only the social justice issues. And it isn’t until later, when the parents ask their child “What did you learn in school today” in detail that the problem is discovered and that their budding mind can’t do multiplication, but can outline every objection to any issue
That is the divide and conquer agenda of DEI. And this was discussed in a video segment about a year ago, but I don’t have a URL to share – my apologies.
I am not from Toronto, I am in northern BC. We don’t have a lot of ESL students. We do have a deteriorating school system. A lack of discipline, poorly suited teachers, discouragement of competition and individual success, and parents who don’t care about their kids education are some of the issues here. But hey, what do I know? I only had seven kids go through the system here.
The outcome of education seems to be the inverse of teacher training and remuneration, especially for the TDSB which has 9770 out of 16,360 permanent teachers appearing on the sunshine list in 2022…
and the probably still don’t know how many people they employ:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-school-board-doesn-t-know-how-many-staff-it-employs-1.1231250
Mathematics is a universal language. We have some nations that do better than us. Instead of just copying their successful methodology every province has a flock of “experts” who revise a failing system every four years.
Each experiment fails, but there are no consequences. The same people get the opportunity to screw up again at great expense.
The unions and wokeness don’t help. In Ontario, minority group prospective teachers were failing a math proficiency test at a disproportionately high rate. The obvious solution – scrap the test, screw the students.
Well they don’t need to know anything. They can look it up on the phone if they take the time to stop viewing Tik Tok videos.
I would hazard a guess that the introduction of computers, tablets, and smart phones has contributed greatly to the reduction in test scores. No need for math, just look up the answer.
Recent grads showing up to work in offices have very few skills other than essentially being data entry clerks. Very little ability to assess and solve problems.
Take away the electronics and start to teach again.
nini: “Take away the electronics and start to teach again.”
We didn’t have calculators back in the day. We were taught how to derive square and cube roots as a matter of course. IIRC, the concept of square roots was introduced in 8th grade and the topic of roots was finished up in 9th grade when we learned the quadratic equation.
I suppose that nowadays, kids are taught how to find the square root button on their calculators.
Have faith Dear Readers the problem has been solved.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/ontario-court-upholds-mandatory-math-test-for-new-teachers/ar-AA1kG3kR
s/
Being long of tooth and short of hair I can remember back in the day that there used to be a course in public school that was called ‘mental arithmetic’, generally done as a quick program just before starting the regular school day. I believe this program like many others was dropped and as a result today’s college graduated barristas can’t work out the change in a coffee shop.
Before anyone calls out the race cards about math being hard for whatever race I’d like to direct your attention to a movie called Hidden Figures from 2016.
Antenor – you are right. We all had to learn the times tables up to 12 x 12.
Fast forward to offsprings and their instruction. Calculators were definitely in but – fortunately – the school which taught our offsprings didn’t use them. Do remember one particular teacher for youngest offspring who started each day with an arithmetic test. Teacher’s comment was that the slower students would never catch up to the brighter ones but that they (the slower ones) would see themselves progressing with practice.
Not to say that all teachers were that attuned basics. Had one offspring doing a science fair experiment about how the colour of a wall, etc., determined how much heat it absorbed from the sun. The experiment itself was simple: six test tubes filled with varying colours of food dye (one plain water) and six thermometers. The set-up was placed in front of a white wall and readings were taken at various intervals. Had to take offspring out of class for an afternoon to perform experiment and had a teacher ask if a lightbulb wouldn’t do just as well.
Antenor
Yup, and I excelled in mental math, won top prize 2 years running, and am still quit good at it, at 76 yr old.
My friend,an ESL type, is also very good at it.
It was a shock when the lockdown started, how little math my Grade 6 daughter could do. I had to sit with her and bring her back from scratch, it took a long time.
Problem is that the teachers spend all their time with the kids who can’t speak English or have other issues. The smart kids are fine, they can work it out. But the kids in the middle? They are totally screwed.
You are correct.
Antenor – you are right. We all had to learn the times tables up to 12 x 12.
Fast forward to offsprings and their instruction. Calculators were definitely in but – fortunately – the school which taught our offsprings didn’t use them. Do remember one particular teacher for youngest offspring who started each day with an arithmetic test. Teacher’s comment was that the slower students would never catch up to the brighter ones but that they (the slower ones) would see themselves progressing with practice.
Not to say that all teachers were that attuned basics. Had one offspring doing a science fair experiment about how the colour of a wall, etc., determined how much heat it absorbed from the sun. The experiment itself was simple: six test tubes filled with varying colours of food dye (one plain water) and six thermometers. The set-up was placed in front of a white wall and readings were taken at various intervals. Had to take offspring out of class for an afternoon to perform experiment and had a teacher ask if a lightbulb wouldn’t do just as well.
Who needs math when everything is free?.. Our? schools are more interested in turning out far left liberals.. Flattering their pets.. Sucking up to parents.. Hit their card, go home and do it again..
I don’t know.. Most jobs that are actually important involve math.. Never mind you own finances.. What good is a calculator if the sum can be hijacked by social studies.. Its little wonder we are F-ed.. A racist curriculum that had no problem bouncing 50% of white people has a big problem bouncing non whites… Brings us all down..
Who failed who is the question nobody is willing to ask..
Ain’t Government run “Public Education grand.?
The education ,of course,is that government minions can never be trusted.
Maths is easy..unless you are a Progressive Comrade.
Reality reaches out to you,if you grok the terms.
There is no free lunch.
The real minimum wage is zero.
Mathematics is both a means of accounting and a language.
That language is one of the most precise methods of describing reality,such that others can duplicate,replicate and communicate concepts with a clearer understanding…
Of course Public Schools cannot teach it,I would estimate that less than 1% of public school “maths teachers” are even aware that algebra is a language,let alone are competent to teach its methods..
“Just give us the formulae”..
When your “educators” are pig ignorant of the subject,they can never inspire a student.
And the incompetence is compounding,”modern school maths” graduates cannot make change,nor use a tape measure..
They are incapable of perceiving just how badly the Parasitic Overload is robbing them.
See?
Public Education works!
Public service Employees chanting “We pay taxes too”..
In other news.
Bureaucrats at the TDSB are shocked at the increased enrolment in private (non union) operated schools.
They have yet to determine the cause.
A spokesperson for one of the private schools has been quoted saying
“Business is great, I hope they keep doing what they’re doing”
I’m shocked by this report.
I had no idea that the TDSB had a math department.
You start by learning how to add, subtract, multiply and divide, as you progress you expand your knowledge. You move to algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculous, and so on. All had to be done without the aid of a calculator or a computer. I have long since forgotten most of it.
I went to school in the 1970’s.
The average grade 8 student in 1977, was better educated that the people TEACHING grade 8 today.
That’s how far we’ve fallen.
Granted….those teachers made us read a LOT of books, and homework every night. And if you screwed around, Mr. Langley would smack you with a leather strap.
But it worked.
Alberta and Quebec seem to be outliers with regard to math results. From the Government of Alberta news release: “The 2022 PISA results released Dec. 5 show that Alberta continues to be a leader in education in Canada and around the world. Alberta students rank first in Canada in reading, first in Canada in science and second only behind Quebec in math. In addition to our impressive results nationally, Alberta students also perform exceptionally well against international competitors. Globally, we ranked second in reading, second in science and seventh in math, within statistical deviation.”