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TESL Ontario Conference Panel Discussion
Language for a Changing World December 11, 2009
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Ministry of Education Goals

• High levels of student achievement
• Reduced gaps in student achievement
• Increased public confidence in education

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Four Pillars of Student Achievement/Student
Success

• Literacy for 21st century
• Numeracy for 21st century
• Program Pathways and Supports
• Community, Culture and Caring

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Closing the Gaps Results and Trends Primary
Reading English-Language Assessments
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Closing the Gaps Results and Trends Primary
Writing English-Language Assessments
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ELL POLICY

• English Language Learners ESL and ELD Programs
  and Services (2007)
• Policies and Procedures for Ontario Elementary
  and Secondary Schools, Kindergarten to Grade 12
• English as a Second Language and English Literacy
  Development (2007)
• Secondary Curriculum Policy

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ELL RESOURCES

• Supporting English Language Learners DVD (2009)
• Supporting English Language Learners in Grades 1
  to 8 (2008)
• Supporting English Language Learners with Limited
  Prior Schooling (2008)
• Supporting English Language Learners in
  Kindergarten (2007)
• Many Roots Many Voices (2005)
• Available at http//www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/teachers
  /publications.html

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COMING UP

• Board Developed Resources from the 111 ELL
  Project initiative in 2008-2009
• Steps for English Proficiency (STEP)
• resource guide
• initial assessment tool
• ongoing assessment continua
• Reading
• Writing
• Oral Communication

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Expanded Cooperative Education

• Currently students can count two cooperative
  education credits towards the 18 compulsory
  credits required for the OSSD.
• There is no limit to the number of optional
  credits that a student may earn through
  cooperative education.
• Two cooperative education credits are a required
  component of the Specialist High Skills Major
  (SHSM). Co-op programs will need to grow to
  accommodate these additional students.

Ontario is a leader in secondary school
cooperative education, nationally and
internationally. It is one of the few
jurisdictions where the program is based on
students applying and further developing
curriculum expectations from a related course in
the workplace.

• The Expansion of Cooperative Education Toolkit
  is available to support schools and boards
  in expanding co-op and is available online on the
  Ministrys website.
• see Cooperative Education Fact Sheet English
  Language Learners

Co-op Snapshot

• Student Enrolment (2007-2008) 114,716
• Number of students taking co-op at least once
  in a school year has climbed by 28 from 57,797
  in 2005-06 to over 73,000 in 2007-08.
• (Note 2008-2009 numbers expected. 2009-2010
  TBD)

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Adult and Continuing Education

• The government is committed to increasing
  opportunities for adults to acquire basic
  education and foundation skills. It invests close
  to 200M annually and supports more than 90,000
  adult learners. This includes basic programming
  reviewed in the Ontario Learns report (EDU adult
  high school credit programs, TCU Literacy and
  Basic Skills and Academic Upgrading and MCI
  ESL/FSL/Bridging programs.)
• Over 50 school boards offer adult and continuing
  education programs, of which 31 offer adult
  education programs funded by all three ministries
  (credit, ESL/FSL and Literacy and Essential
  Skills).

• The Ministry of Education provides more than 70M
  annually for school boards to deliver adult and
  continuing education programs and services for
  credit leading to a secondary school diploma.
• The Ministers Committee on Adult Education
  chaired by the Minister of Education, meets
  regularly to provide direction on improved policy
  alignment and coordination of programs and
  services for adult learners across government.

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ENGLISH LANGUAGE POLICY AND PROGRAM

• Boards will implement a process for evaluating a
  students proficiency in an international
  language(s) and providing appropriate credit(s)
  for that proficiency. This includes Prior
  Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR).
• Through the process of challenging for credit,
  students may have their knowledge and skills
  evaluated against the expectations outlined for
  any of the Level 14 international language
  courses in the provincial curriculum policy
  documents in order to earn credit(s) towards the
  secondary school diploma (Section 2.6.4)

In 2009-10, the ministry will continue to enhance
the capacity of school boards to recognize and
assess prior learning, to collect and report
significant data on their adult learners and
programs and to provide accessible information.
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FIRST LANGUAGE CHALLENGE ASSESSMENTS

• School boards developed challenge assessments in
  Persian (Farsi), Punjabi, Mandarin, Cantonese,
  Arabic, Spanish Russian that newcomers can use
  to demonstrate their proficiency and earn credits
  toward an Ontario Secondary School Diploma
• CESBA (Ontario Association of Adult and
  Continuing Education School Board Administrators)
  and ILEA (International Language Educators
  Association) received funding to develop the
  First Language Challenge Assessment Resource
  Guide to support school boards with the
  implementation of these PLAR assessments
• These assessments will be available in an online
  format using the provincial Learning Management
  System after field testing is completed in spring
  2010