Comparing Approaches to Teaching Literacy: Ontario vs. Saskatchewan

Introduction

The purpose of this post is to provide a look at English Language Learning by comparing two Canadian provinces: Ontario and Saskatchewan. My goal in this analysis is to gain a greater understanding of how Ontario’s vision of an accountable education system compares to another within the country. I have gathered information from government websites, documentation such as policies and guidebooks for students and teachers, recent studies, as well as the knowledge of my cousin who is a teacher in Saskatchewan.

Like Ontario, Saskatchewan has three fully funded systems: public, separate, and French. I was surprised to learn that along with these two provinces, Alberta is the only other in Canada where the separate system is protected by constitutional status. Saskatchewan has 28 total school boards in the province (including one separate Protestant and one French language board) compared to Ontario’s 76 boards. Both provinces have adopted a K-12 system, however SK has middle school for grades 7-9 and high school for grades 10-12. For this reason, high school students in SK require 24 credits to graduate, while in Ontario the number is 30. School attendance is mandatory until the age of 16 in Saskatchewan, two years less than Ontario. This is likely due to the strong agricultural sector that supports the economy there.

Research Findings

1.Time on Task

In Ontario, high school students must earn a minimum of four English credits from grade 9 to 12 to graduate. Typically, students will take one English credit per year, which involves 75 minutes per day of instructional time in a semester, for a total of approximately 100 hours of instruction per course. By the time they graduate, Ontario students will have had 400 hours of English language instruction.

As previously mentioned, high school in SK is from grade 10-12. Five of the 24 credits they earn must be English credits. One credit is the equivalent of 100 hours of instruction, for a total of 500 hours by the time they graduate. In grade 10, students take two English courses. In grade 11 they take one, and in Grade 12 they take two. Students also have the option of taking one or more elective English courses.

2. Streaming English

A. Ontario

In 1999, Ontario adopted a new province wide system of streaming students based on career pathways. In Grades 9 and 10, students must choose between academic, applied, and locally developed level courses. Academic courses are prerequisites for University level courses, while applied courses are prerequisites for college level courses at the senior levels. Locally developed courses are prerequisites for Workplace courses at the senior levels. The differences between the streams are outlined below by CareerCrusing.com:

Academic Courses:

focus on the essential concepts of the discipline plus additional related concepts.  Academic courses develop students’ knowledge and skills by emphasizing theoretical, abstract applications of the essential concepts while incorporating practical applications, as appropriate. 

Applied Courses:

focus on the essential concepts of the discipline. Applied courses develop students’ knowledge and skills by emphasizing practical, concrete applications of the essential concepts while incorporating theoretical applications, as appropriate.

Locally Developed Courses:

focus on the most essential concepts of a discipline. These courses are offered in Mathematics, Science, English and Canadian History. These courses will provide support for students making the transition to high school by enhancing their skills to allow them to be successful at secondary school. Students in Ontario schools can earn up to six credits toward a secondary school diploma through locally developed compulsory credit courses (LDCC). 

Open Level Courses:

Open level courses have one set of expectations for each subject and are appropriate for all students. Open level courses are offered for all non-core subjects and do not have a prescribed post-secondary destination.

B. Saskatchewan

In SK, there are three levels of the “Regular Education Program”: locally modified advanced, provincially developed (core), and locally modified basic. They also offer Alternative Education Programs for students with below average cognitive abilities whose needs cannot be met by the regular program. I have outlined the differences below:

Locally Modified Advanced:

100% of the provincial curriculum objectives are met, plus up to a maximum of 50% of advanced objectives determined by the individual school board.

Provincially Developed “Core”:

100% of the provincial curriculum objectives are met.

Locally Modified Basic:

50% of provincial curriculum objectives are met, 50% of locally developed objectives met, as determined by individual school boards.

 My cousin who teaches in Lloydminster, SK mentioned that the vast majority of students are enrolled in the advanced courses, and that some schools do not even offer the core level courses because of low enrolment. However, I was unable to find hard data that supported this suggestion.

Comparing Streaming Outputs

What I did come across in my research was an interesting study by Statistics Canada (2000) which compared streaming outcomes in SK, ON, AB, and BC. These are the four provinces in the country with the most defined systems of streaming. Using the national Youth in Transition survey, they compared the number of grade 10 students with PSE (post secondary education) options verses students who did not. The results were quite eye-opening. Here are some highlights:

·         In ON, 64% of students had open PSE options compared to 87% in SK. In both provinces, girls had a slightly higher number than boys. SK had the highest results of all four provinces.

·         All provinces showed the trend that the higher the family income, the more likely a student was to have PSE options open.

·         Students with immigrant parents, visible minorities, and English as a Second Language students were all more likely to have open PSE options than native/English speaking students. These findings challenge previous studies that suggest the opposite. SK did not have a large enough sample of students in these categories to be included in this statistic.

The link to the study can be found here: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-004-x/2007002/9994-eng.htm

3. English Standards

As a way of comparison, I decided to take a look at the differences between the Gr. 10 Academic English course in Ontario (ENG2D) and the Grade 10 advanced course (ELA A10) in Saskatchewan.

A.   Ontario

All compulsory English courses in Ontario are divided into four strands of learning: Oral Communication, Reading, Writing and Media Studies. Under each strand, there are overall expectations and corresponding specific expectations for each course. For each expectation, several examples are provided on how students can demonstrate their meeting of this expectation. For example, under the writing strand, the second overall expectation is Using Knowledge of Form and Style. A specific expectation students must meet is to “write for different purposes and audiences using a variety of literary, graphic, and informational forms”. Examples of meeting this expectation include “a speech to persuade their peers to take action on an issue; a myth or updated fairy tale for young children”. In ENG2D, there are 70 specific expectations like this one that fall under the four stands. The curriculum document for this course is available online here: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/secondary/english910currb.pdf

B.   Saskatchewan

As previously stated, gr. 10 students in SK must take two English credits: ELA A10 and ELA B10. Each credit has 2 units of study, and its own specific expectations that complement/build on one another.  

Unlike Ontario, overall expectations are not organized into 4 strands. Instead, they are focused on three overarching “goals and outcomes” including: Comprehend and Respond, Compose and Create, and Assess and Reflect. Like Ontario, these goals are accompanied by overall expectations and specific expectations. However, there are considerably less specific expectations identified. For example, ELA A10 has 10 specific expectations that must be met. The expectations also are written in a more applicable, concrete way that those of Ontario. For example, here are two of the four expectations for Compose and Create:

CC A10.2 Explain and present to a familiar audience the key ideas and events (actual or based on a text studied) through an appropriate combination of charts, diagrams, sound, models, drama, and print.

CC A10.4 Compose and create a variety of written literary (including a historical persona essay and a review) and informational (including an observation [eye-witness] report and researched or technical report) texts attending to various elements of discourse (e.g., purpose, speaker, audience, form).

The province clearly outlines the “Forms of Representing” or assessment opportunities expected for the course, including a “historical persona essay” and “multimedia presentation”. The province also provides a “minimum guide for resource selection” that teachers must adhere to. For ELA A10, this includes 10 poems, 5 short stories, 5 essays, 2 novels, and 2 plays. Resources must also include informational texts including articles, podcasts, brochures, documentaries and websites. This same guide is expected for ELA B10.

The curriculum for all English courses in SK is available here: https://www.curriculum.gov.sk.ca/webapps/moe-curriculum-BBLEARN/teaching?view=teaching&lang=en&subj=english_language_arts&level=10

4.Testing

A.   Ontario

In Ontario, high school students write final examinations at the end of each course. These exams range in worth from 15% to 20% of the students’ final grade. Final exams in Ontario are created, administered, and graded by the classroom teacher. At my school, efforts have been made to improve the consistency of these exams by using standard formats and questions, however they may vary greatly from school to school and board to board.

Ontario students must also write the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) in grade 10. According to EQAO.com, the test is designed to measure “whether or not students are meeting the minimum standard for literacy across all subjects up to the end of Grade 9”. The test occurs on the same day for all students in the province, usually in late March, and takes 2.5 hours. It is developed and administered by the Ontario government (EQAO) and students must pass this exam to earn their high school diploma. EQAO states that they work with teachers in the planning, development and assessment of the OSSLT, however it is unclear as to how many teachers are actively involved and how they are chosen to contribute.

B.   Saskatchewan

A standardized literacy test like the OSSLT does not exist in Saskatchewan. However, provincial “Departmental” Exams in Grade 12 are mandatory for all students enrolled in English, math and science courses not taught by an accredited teacher. According to the Government of SK, a teacher is eligible to become accredited if they have an Honours Degree in the subject matter, have two years experience, and attend the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation seminar.  If a teacher is accredited, they can create and administer the exam themselves, otherwise students must write the Departmental examination.

I was able to find the Teacher Guide to the exam which had a lot of information in it, which you can find here: https://web.archive.org/web/20110112073411/http://www.education.gov.sk.ca:80/adx/aspx/adxGetMedia.aspx?DocID=930,918,284,107,81,1,Documents&MediaID=15164&Filename=teacherguide2010.pdf

This exam is worth 40% of the final mark, with the remaining 60% made up of the school mark. Each examination is 2.5 hours in length, however since 2006, all students are granted an addition half hour if required. All English examinations are marker scored (rather than machine scored, like in chemistry and math). The format of a sample Gr. 12 exam includes five sections: multiple choice, short answer, paragraph response, short essay and a long essay. The Teacher Guide clearly states that it is the teacher’s responsibility to select and teach texts that have been approved by the ministry as suitable for the course, and that students will be penalized on the exam if they do not use these texts in their written responses.

Conclusion

Overall, there are several similarities between Ontario’s and Saskatchewan’s approach to teaching English in high school. Both provinces have adopted a system of streaming students based on academic ability. However, it seems that SK’s system better prepares students for post secondary possibilities. I think that this may be because while in Ontario, students need to make a clear choice between university or college through the selection of the academic or applied stream, in SK both the advanced and core stream offer university as a post-secondary option. It also seems that more students are encouraged to take courses that lead to post secondary options in SK compared to Ontario based on the data from StatsCan. Though I have only taught in the Ontario system, I personally feel that we should adopt a system that does not stream students until grade 10 or 11. This would allow students the time they need to consider their future aspirations after they have made the challenging transition into high school.

Both provinces have a mandated curriculum for English courses. However, the framework for this curriculum and the expectations for teacher implementation is distinct. I can appreciate elements of both. I like how Ontario’s curriculum is divided into the four strands, because they are practical and provide a clear distinction. But I prefer SK’s more concise list of specific expectations for each course. Having 50 to 70 specific expectations is far too many, and I find that many of them are repetitive. The wording and applicability of SK’s curriculum expectations are also more accessible to both teachers and students alike.

While both provinces use standardized tests, the method and implementation differs. In Ontario, the OSSLT is a compulsory part of a student’s diploma. SK does not have a literacy test, but does mandate standardized Departmental Exams for grade 12 core courses. I think that these exams really drive the instruction and assessment format of these courses, and limit the creativity and professional judgement of the teachers who teach them. It seems that the courses are structured to prepare students for the exam. I also think that the exam is weighted far too heavily, and therefore may not fairly or accurately represent all students’ knowledge or abilities.  

Another important distinction is that students in SK have considerably more instructional time studying English than students in Ontario. I personally think it is great that students in grades 10 and 12 in SK take English both semesters. This really allows for the opportunity for students to continue to develop their reading and writing abilities without extended breaks. It also emphasizes the importance of English as it relates to all career options, which I think all English teachers can appreciate.

After completing this research task, I think that continuing to compare Ontario’s implementation of accountability to other provinces and jurisdictions can provide a lot of valuable food for thought, and challenge some of the assumptions we all make about how to best meet the needs of our students.