Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap

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Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap

• Ben Levin
• OISE University of Toronto
• Brisbane, July 2, 2008

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Outline

• Why education matters
• What is possible
• How to create real improvement
• Will and skill
• Ontario as an example

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Lets Start With Arne Boldt
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(No Transcript)
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Why Education Matters

• More education is linked with
• Better employment, higher income
• More life satisfaction
• Better health, longer life, less stress
• Less criminality, more likely to vote
• Greater tolerance, respect for diversity
• Effects are cross generational

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Last Fifty Years

• Increasing education levels
• Historically unprecedented
• With no loss of quality
• BUT big gaps remain

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Gaps in Outcomes

• Australia very similar to Canada
• Following charts from PISA results courtesy of
  Barry McGaw

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Barry McGaw (November 2006), Schooling, Making
the Boom Pay Economic and Social Outlook
Conference 2006 from website http//www.melbournei
nstitute.com/conf2006/pdffiles/Session204C/McGaw_
ppt.pdf
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SES-science literacy correlations (PISA 2006)
High quality Low equity
High quality High equity
Low quality Low equity
Low quality High equity
OECD (2007) PISA 2006 science competencies for
tomorrows world, Vol 1 analysis, Figure 4.6,
p.184.
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Gaps in Outcomes

• Following slides from Jonathan Carapetis,
  Director Menzies School of Health Research

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• A first challenge is to reduce the number of
  students who are falling by the wayside in our
  schools.  Many students become disenchanted,
  disengaged, fall further behind each year and
  leave school with unacceptably low levels of the
  basics.  The OECD estimates that 13 per cent of
  Australian 15-year-olds are performing below the
  OECD baseline and are at risk of not having the
  basics required for work and productive
  citizenship as adults.

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• The percentage of at risk students is much
  higher for some sections of the Australian
  population.  Approximately 40 per cent of
  Indigenous students, 27 per cent of students
  living in remote parts of Australia and 23 per
  cent of students from the lowest socioeconomic
  quartile are considered by the OECD to be at
  risk.

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Overall

• Significant gaps remain
• The differences matter
• To individuals
• To the larger society
• Talent loss

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Role of the School

• Biggest impacts on outcomes lie outside the
  school
• Poverty/SES
• Economic and social conditions
• Neighbourhood capacity
• But schools can have an impact

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We Can Do Better

• We do not know the limits of human capacity
• We do know that we have not reached them
• Think of Arne Boldt
• Or Ontario Turnaround Schools

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The Last Twenty-Five Years

• Many efforts at improving schools
• We have learned that we can do better
• Also many disappointing results
• Much effort with little result
• Or good efforts dont last
• Too many small scale attempts

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Why Is Improvement So Hard?

• The wrong changes
• Poor implementation
• Lack of attention to politics
• Lots of evidence of all three

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The Ontario Experience

• 2003 climate of distrust, conflict, static
  results
• 2007 improving results, improving educator
  morale, much more cooperation and consensus
• Paid attention to all three elements
• Strategy, implementation, politics

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Ontario Context

• 1M square kilometres (a little less than NT)
• 13 M people, 2 M students
• 5000 schools in 4 systems
• Governed by elected boards
• 120,000 teachers, 70,000 support staff
• Schools and systems range greatly in size,
  sophistication

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Wrong Changes

• Given limited resources, must focus on best
  approaches
• What does not work
• Changing governance and structures
• Change through policy alone
• One school at a time, relying only on the local
• Change through testing and incentives alone
• Change through fear, punishment

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Ontario Changes

• Focus on student outcomes
• Elementary literacy and numeracy
• High school graduation
• But avoided a really narrow approach
• Evidence-informed strategies
• Focus on changing classroom practice
• Supportive of teachers and their learning

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Poor Implementation

• No clear goals
• Too many small projects
• Not enough support infrastructure
• Capacity building in all its forms
• Effort not sustained long enough
• Fail to build local commitment
• Students, communities and educators
• Poor alignment at all levels

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Ontario Approach

• Create infrastructure to support implementation
• Persistence over 4 (now 8) years
• Pay attention to leadership development
• Balance direction with local initiative
• Relentlessly positive
• Pressure to align within and across levels
• More resources, carefully targeted

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Political Problems

• Short term orientation
• Next election
• Frequent changes in direction

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Political Problems

• Short term orientation
• Next election
• Frequent changes in direction
• Tendency to be negative
• Unrealistic goals
• Trying to do too many things at once
• Surprises and distractions
• Everything rests on public confidence

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Defending Politics

• Driven by very rational considerations
• Getting elected public support
• Has to take into account realities of peoples
  knowledge and interests
• Limited knowledge
• Strong opinions
• Contradictory ideas

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If I cant explain it in 25 words or less,
people stop listening.
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That may be true, but its not what people
believe.

• Citizens matter more than experts.

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Surprises

• At any given moment there is a high probability
  of very low probability events occurring.
• In other words, surprise dominates.
• Yehezkel Dror, Policymaking Under Adversity (1986)

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Implications

• Hard to get and sustain political attention and
  support
• Yet political support is necessary
• Expertise has limited effect
• This is not an indicator of ill-will or
  incompetence
• Much depends on what the public thinks

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What Builds Public Confidence?

• Advertising has a limited effect
• Getting the basic things right
• Safety, transportation, stability
• Plentiful and honest communication
• Failures as well as successes
• Listening as well as telling
• Evidence
• Word of mouth as well as data
• Every interaction affects public attitudes

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Ontario Approach

• Public confidence set out as a specific goal
• Vehicles for dialogue
• Reducing in-sector conflict (labour peace)
• Schools as the key vehicle for reaching the public

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Some Ontario Results

• All achievement indicators up
• Literacy/numeracy from 54 to 64
• Graduation from 68 to 75
• Low performing schools down by 75
• Educator morale up
• Fewer people leaving the profession
• Public confidence up

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Implications

• We can improve results
• It takes will and skill
• Sustained effort over time
• Leadership at all levels
• Beyond good ideas
• Good implementation
• Political and public support

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This is hard, but not impossible
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A Poetic View

• I know.
• But I do not accept.
• And I am not resigned.
• Dirge Without Music
• Edna St. Vincent Millay

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Vision, Optimism and Realism
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Thank You!