School boards in York Region and across the province are preparing to implement new measures for early reading, but unions are protesting how the province is handling it.
The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) and Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association (OECTA) are protesting the lack of input regarding the policy guiding mandatory early reading screening from senior kindergarten to Grade 2 this year.
The province is planning to implement the new screening to help evaluate reading levels at young ages.
ETFO vice-president David Mastin said this policy is being imposed unilaterally without negotiation with teachers at the bargaining table.
“Our collective agreement presently has language that allows for teachers to use their professional discretion when choosing a list of diagnostic assessments,” he said. “Every student is at a very different level. Every class, every community is very, very different. We have to differentiate the way we teach.”
The policy stems from the Right to Read public inquiry in 2019. The government committed in 2022 to implement many of the report’s recommendations, including early reading screening and ending the three-cueing system long used in Ontario literacy education as unscientific.
The newly released policy memorandum from the province require school boards to start implementing the screening this September, with screenings required twice in a school year — although those that pass the first screening do not have to do the second. Boards must do the first screening before mid-November and principals will be required to provide details on the screenings to parents.
But Mastin said implementing the screening will take time and training that could prove challenging.
He added that teachers will choose a good tool provided to them appropriately.
“Teachers care deeply about the outcomes for students,” he said. “If something good is provided to them and it is pedagogically sound, they’re going to deliver that. Would teachers do this if they still had the professional judgment to choose it? If it was good, they absolutely would.”
York Catholic District School Board chief information officer Scott Morrow said the board is still finalizing its screening tool and could provide a fulsome response later in the month.
NewmarketToday did not receive a reply to a request for comment from York Region District School Board before the publication deadline.
The province is providing school boards with funding to implement screening tools and a new literature curriculum.
Ministry of Education spokesperson Grace Lee said the status quo is not acceptable and it is determined to lift the standards of education, which is why it announced its plans to implement the Right to Read recommendations in 2022.
“This September, students will benefit from an investment of $650 million more than last year, the hiring of 2,000 more specialized literacy and math educators, and a new language curriculum that follows the evidence — including phonics, cursive writing and critical thinking skills,” Lee said.
The elementary unions said these big changes are happening without the appropriate time for implementation.
Both ETFO and the OECTA called on the government to use the bargaining table to “work collaboratively and meaningfully with frontline educators and to make the real, sustained investments in publicly funded education needed, so that all students have the learning environment they deserve.”
