High school students and their parents in York Region, Ontario, have been fighting to reinstate a cancelled math course that was a casualty of the province’s de-streaming efforts.
While the aim of de-streaming was to expand students’ educational options, data showing increased failure rates suggest that the change may be having the opposite effect.
The system “has to be equitable… But my son Sam, what’s the equity there?” says Melissa Bergeron. Bergeron’s 15-year-old son Sam floundered last year after the York Region District School Board cancelled applied math, forcing all students into the academic stream. Sam will now have to take a locally developed math course if he wants to graduate.
“Locally developed, that’s his only choice. Locally developed means that his options for post secondary, anything that would require math [credit], is out,” Bergeron said, referring to the fact that the locally-developed course is a level down from applied math and not accepted by colleges. “College or university is out.”
Ontario slow to rollout de-streamed curriculum
In July 2020, Premier Doug Ford announced that the province would end streaming in high schools, starting with Grade 9 math. Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced a new curriculum for Grade 9 math for the 2021-22 school year and said that de-streaming would extend to Grade 10 or 11 at some point in the future. Three years later, the province has still not released a de-streamed curriculum for these upper years.
De-streaming aims to undo streaming. Streaming has students decide in Grade 8 whether to enter an academic stream that prepares students for university or college, or an applied stream, which prepares them for some college programs or immediate entry into the workforce.
Proponents of de-streaming — which include the registered charity People for Education, the provincial agency Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario and anti-racism activists — had advocated for years for the province to de-stream.
Their position was that streaming channelled students based on race and social disadvantage into the lower, “applied” level of study, according to Annie Kidder, executive director of People for Education. Some also argued that Grade 8 is too young for students to make life-altering decisions about their education.
‘This has really taken a toll on me’
The province’s de-streamed Grade 9 math curriculum, which Ontario students began in September 2021, omitted some topics from the original academic course and some from the original applied course.
Students interested in pursuing an academic stream in later years missed knowledge they would need, a source who spoke on background told Canadian Affairs. Conversely, students interested in studying applied math struggled to master the material, the source said.
“[De-streaming] affects students like me because they are mixing together applied and academic courses which is very hard,“ wrote Nathan, a York Region student who failed the de-streamed Grade 9 math course, in a blog post in May.
“This has really taken a toll on me and other students,” he added. “There should be more support in these classes because it is hard for students jumping from locally developed or applied to learn all the added academic level work.”
The following school year, the cohort entered Grade 10 math. While the province’s education ministry had not mandated that Grade 10 courses be de-streamed in the 2022-23 school year, the York Region District School Board cancelled Grade 10 applied math and moved all students into the academic stream.
When parents of students in Grade 10 math saw their children’s low marks during first semester, they banded together to push the board to reinstate applied math. Parents Lee-Ann Potter and Rozanne Treger founded the Facebook group York Region District School Board Parents Advocating For Applied Math, which counts 81 members.
Failure rate jumped
Treger filed Freedom of Information requests to obtain the failure rates of the York Region Grade 10 academic math course in 2020-21 and 2021-22 and the single math course available in 2022-23.
The results of the request showed that the failure rate for academic math in 2020-21 was 2.3 per cent and 4.2 per cent in 2021-22. In 2022-23, the year applied math was cancelled, the failure rate jumped to 9.7 per cent.
Treger presented the results to the board this spring and requested that Grade 10 applied math be reinstated, on behalf of the parents’ Facebook group.
“We didn’t know what failure rates would be for the first semester” when parents first started lobbying for the course’s return, Treger said.
“And neither did the trustees until just a few days” before her presentation, she said. “And that’s what pushed them because we didn’t have that information, but we were pushing and pushing.”
“We had some wonderful, wonderful trustees that really wanted to help. And they were horrified” when they saw the failure rate.
No York region board trustee or its executive director were available for comment. Trustees Carolyn Butterworth and Elizabeth Sinclair did respond to an email. Both said they could not speak on the matter until they heard from the board chair.
Course to return on case-by-case basis
Since the province has yet to release a combined curriculum for Grade 10 math for the upcoming school year, parents continue to fear for their children’s education.
Parents were told at a subsequent board meeting that the board’s plan is to offer Grade 10 applied math on a case-by-case basis, possibly in the evenings or online. Families will be contacted in the last two weeks of August this year with details, they were told.
In response to requests for comment, Dale Brusselers, the board’s communications specialist, emailed Canadian Affairs a written statement: “Our board remains committed to supporting students and maintaining pathway options as part of our de-streaming learning plan.”
“At this time, we are still reviewing the data from the 2022-23 school year. Decisions about course offerings will be made on a case-by-case basis and will reflect the best interest of each student.”
Both Treger and Potter say they have not been able to find out what a case-by-case basis means.
“They’re bringing back Grade 10 applied math on a case-by-case basis, with priority for the students who have already failed Grade 10 math,” Treger said. “So those kids moving from Grade 9 to Grade 10 are not a priority?”
“Why is [applied math] only going to be offered to students who have failed? Why isn’t it just going to be offered to all students who need it?”
