Archive for the ‘Education Policy Context’ Category

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Ontario to end streaming in Grade 9 and change other ‘racist, discriminatory’ practices

Monday, July 6th, 2020

The Ontario government plans to end streaming in Grade 9 — a long-standing practice that research has found disproportionately impacts Black and low-income students and severely limits their chance of graduating and going on to post-secondary education… The province will also introduce a ban on suspending younger, elementary-school kids — Black students are again disproportionately affected — and improve diversity in hiring and promotions.

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Zombie schemes & bad outcomes

Monday, April 6th, 2020

I’m pretty certain the governments summoning the zombie of performance-based funding back to life realize that their inappropriate measures can’t possibly make any college or university better at educating anyone. Rather, it’s a cynical move in- tended to set us up for failure, so that planned cuts can be cloaked as the result of “objective measures” that are actually loaded with ideology. The point is ultimately to control post-secondary institutions, and the work that takes place in them.

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How many teachers is your school set to lose? Calculate it here.

Tuesday, February 11th, 2020

As the Ontario government continues to promote educational reforms that increase class size, reduce course selection, underfund special needs and implement mandatory e-learning, I wanted to share with you some resources that help demonstrate the impact of these changes on our kids’ classrooms.

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About to graduate, education students question fairness of new mandatory math test

Tuesday, December 3rd, 2019

Education students across the province are campaigning against the math test for new teachers introduced by the Conservative government even while they cram to prepare for it… The test will assess both their knowledge of the math curriculum from Grades 3 to 11 and pedagogy, or the best way to teach the subject… based on “core understandings, otherwise known as big ideas, surrounding important content dimensions in mathematics.”

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Trending towards inequality: Understanding the role of universities in the rise of contract academic work

Friday, November 15th, 2019

If universities begin to aggressively increase class sizes, eliminate course offerings, or succeed in imposing an increased workload on tenure-stream faculty, performance funding measures may lead to many contract faculty losing their jobs or having less work. However, as tenure-stream faculty retire and are not replaced, there will likely be an increased reliance on contract faculty. Neither scenario is favourable…

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Canada Research Chairs program announces new, more ambitious equity targets

Wednesday, September 11th, 2019

After 13 years of slow progress towards its equity goals, the Canada Research Chairs (CRC) program is redoubling efforts to improve diversity within the program. On July 31, the Tri-agency Institutional Programs Secretariat… announced more ambitious targets for representation of four equity-seeking groups: women, persons with disabilities, Indigenous people and visible minorities.

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Trudeau government outlines five-year, $148-million plan to attract more foreign students to Canadian universities

Tuesday, August 27th, 2019

The government is targeting countries with a large and growing middle class that may not yet have the higher-education capacity to educate all their students, or where the prospect of a Canadian education in English or French holds appeal… The strategy also allocates $95-million to encourage Canadian students to study and build ties abroad, particularly in Asia and Latin America, rather than the common destinations of the U.S., Britain and Australia.

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New sex-ed curriculum builds on previous Liberal version

Thursday, August 22nd, 2019

The new curriculum modernizes and builds on the one introduced by the Liberals in 2015 and even retains much of the material that originally caused all the controversy. That should allay concerns among educators that social conservatives were going to force changes that could put students — especially LGBT youth — at risk.

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CAUT condemns Heritage report on copyright

Friday, May 17th, 2019

The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) is alarmed by recommendations released this week by the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage regarding copyright law in Canada. The report, though produced by a committee mandated to take into consideration the broad range of stakeholder interests — including creators, the public, educators and students — focuses entirely on the interests of big publishers and their lobby groups.

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The Progressive Conservatives’ first budget targets Ontario’s universities

Monday, April 29th, 2019

… this budget delivered what OCUFA expected: a continued attack on workers’ rights, university autonomy and public services including postsecondary education, and needless cuts to public services, especially those aimed at low-income Ontarians… projected to be cut by $700 million, which mainly reflects a deep cut (over $670 million) to the Student Financial Assistance (OSAP) budget… The budget included several postsecondary-related announcements.

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