Ontario Government to take action on Student Absenteeism

But does it realize this is a symptom of a larger problem?

Ontario Minister of Education Paul Calandra

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By Igor Stravinsky (Teacher, educator)

According to media reports, new data from school boards shows that only 40 percent of students are showing up to school 90 or more percent of the time. 90% attendance means missing a day every second week. Attendance is poorest in grade 12, which is arguably the most critical year in terms of post-secondary opportunities and success.

In an attempt to discourage skipping classes, the Minister of Education, Paul Calandra, is moving to make attendance worth 10 to 15 percent of course marks. But he was quick to add that absences due to illness, religious holidays, sports tournaments, and First Nations kids’ traditional hunting trips won’t impact grades. Does he know that Indigenous kids tend to do poorly in school? Also, is he aware that traditional hunting is not a viable way to make a living in 21st century Canada.

The Minister is also calling for mandatory formal exams, presumably for high school students. He admitted that when he took over the portfolio, he thought that attendance and participation were part of the mark and that exams “were happening all over the place”. That is not surprising. Most people assume the system is set up in a meritocratic manner and that students all have to work hard to earn marks. It makes sense that those who put in the most consistent effort would be rewarded with the best marks. But ask any teacher and they will tell you that has not been the case in a very long time.

To understand why attendance is so poor, overall, you have to understand the objectives of the school boards and Ministry of Education, which are political: The overriding aim is high graduation rates, which are the result of credit accumulation. If almost everyone is passing courses and graduating from high school after four years, then all is well! No one is going to get picky and start asking if kids are actually obtaining knowledge and skills and developing the attitudes and work habits they will need to succeed later in life.

The thing is, kids aren’t dumb and many soon realize that no one really expects them to prove they learned anything. Many of them come to see school as a kind of a drop-in center. The main reason they show up at all is to socialize with their friends. They’ll do as little as they can get away with, and they don’t have to do much.

So sure, kids miss a lot of classes, because they and their parents know it won’t affect grades much, if at all, in most cases. If you miss a test or a project deadline, that test or project simply won’t count. Let’s say there are 5 unit tests and 5 major projects in a semester plus a “summative” project (a big project at the end of the term which may count for as much as 30% of the mark). Student A attends diligently, missing only a couple of classes, takes all the tests and hands in all the projects. Her mark is based on that body of work. Student B is away for 6 weeks on a family trip to a far-away country. He only takes 2 tests and hands in 3 projects. He doesn’t do the summative project. His mark is based on the work he did. Both students end up with a similar mark, even though student A worked twice as hard and probably learned twice as much as student B.

Student C hates school. He doesn’t show up to class much at all for the first 75% of the term and obviously hands in nothing and writes no tests. Red flags start going up after a couple of weeks, but nothing is done to enforce attendance. Finally, once it is clear the student will fail, the “credit recovery” team kicks in. They drag the kids into the “contact” room (he can be easily found smoking just off school property or just hanging around the hallways or school property) and make him go through the motions of doing a couple of assignments related to the course he has been skipping. He then passes the course with a 50%. He has learned absolutely nothing, other than that the system is a joke that can easily be played. This is a lesson he will take to heart and he will likely use those skills to milk the social welfare system for the rest of his life after he graduates. Your tax dollars at work!

It is important to note that there is a significant subset of students who take school very seriously indeed. These bright kids basically live for school, attending almost every class and spending hours per night reviewing coursework and working on projects and assignments. They take the most challenging courses, get high marks, and go on to attend university where they are successful and join the professional class as engineers, doctors, lawyers, etc.

These students make up maybe 25% of the school. For them, it is all a game that they know they can win, because they are smart and have a stable and supportive home environment they can count on.

As for the other kids, they are smart enough to know that they don’t have what it takes to compete with that cohort. They have been forced into a competition with those kids since junior kindergarten and they just keep losing. There is all kinds of social pressure on them to excel in abstract academic studies, but that is just not their thing. They eventually settle into a routine of going through the motions and just living day to day, or maybe week to week. They don’t really know what they’ll do after high school, but it seems too far off to really worry about.

But we don’t just need doctors, lawyers, and engineers in Canada. We also need hydro workers, plumbers, roofers, drywall installers, day care workers, elder care workers, etc. etc. etc. Do you actually care if the person looking after your elderly mother has an IQ of 140? I’m guessing that you want someone who believes in human dignity and is willing to listen to your mom’s stories.

Kids need to believe that the education they are receiving will lead to meaningful, respected, and decently paid work, and that regular attendance and participation will result in success. They need to know that there is no free paycheck waiting for them if they choose to slack off and “chill” with their friends instead of attending classes. Their parents need to make it clear that living in the family home indefinitely while working a part-time minimum-wage job (or not working at all) will not be allowed.

But school boards are obsessed with equal outcomes for race-based groups. They simply cannot accept that we need different types of school programs for different types of kids, because, invariably, you won’t end up with a proportional number of kids from “traditionally marginalized groups” in every program. School administrators will pretend, but the fact is they are academics who do not always value all types of work equally. They see the professional class as the winners, and are determined to ensure that in the future, all professional classes of workers have a proportional number of every kind of marginalized (non-white) identity group. In order to get access to the postsecondary programs that lead to professional class jobs for these marginalized kids, their marks have to be inflated and standards and expectations lowered.

This is of course disastrous in the long run. It is common knowledge that women and certain non-white people are given preferential access to education programs and jobs. This results in resentment and the perception that these kinds of people are less capable of doing the work. Racist views and stereotypes are actually reinforced.

Minister Calandra, you seem to be getting a clue about what is wrong with the education system and your government has been taking some basic steps in the right direction, but the system is not working well for most kids. You need to immediately:

● Stop boards from obsessing about identity groups and make them focus on learning opportunities for all students, meritocracy, fairness, and respecting each student as a unique individual.

● Bring back ability groupings for kids in school starting as early as possible. Streaming in grade 9 and 10 has to re-start next September. The brightest kids need to be challenged to reach their potential. Other kids need lessons which are challenging but within reach. Placement has to be based on previous academic achievement. Moving from one stream to another has to be possible, and the way that is accomplished has to be clearly explained to students and parents.

● Students must be expected to show up to class and make a strong effort. Disrupting the learning of others cannot be tolerated. Once kids realize the adults are serious about this, the vast majority will fall in line. Incidents of serious misconduct will drop.

● Bring in differential instruction ASAP in elementary school so that every kid is being challenged with relevant curriculum that will lead to valuable knowledge and skills accumulation. Stop beating kids who are not academically oriented over the head with the same abstract concepts that they simply cannot grasp and then pushing them through as if they were successful.

● Every child is entitled to an education, but get the violent kids out of the regular classrooms. There have to be alternative learning sites for these kids where their impulse control issues and special learning needs can be addressed and they are not causing a constant disruption. The goal should be re-integration, but it must be acknowledged that this is not always possible.

● Pretending all kids “can do anything” is setting most of them up for failure. Kids should be told “We’ll support you. You can try to do anything, and you’ll never know what you can do until you try. If it doesn’t work out, no problem. Try something else”.

● There should be alternatives to traditional schooling for kids age 16 and up who have just had enough of the system, such as job training programs. If they later want to continue their education, they should be able to do so in an adult learning environment.

This is not related to the attendance problem, and deserves a full article on its own, but it’s really important: Stop the sexualization of junior school kids, and ensure the information middle and high school kids are receiving about sexuality is age-appropriate, balanced, and accurate. Do not allow activist organizations to make presentations or provide learning materials to schools. It is critical that this subject be taught in a thorough, unbiased, and scientific manner, with a focus on what is best for the health and wellbeing of young people.

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Thanks for reading. For more from this author, read Doug Ford’s Letter to School Boards is a Positive Sign

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