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Section Three: New Curriculum Directions

3.1 How can we ensure excellence in our programs?

In the public consultation package, the document Curriculum for Ontario Secondary Schools noted that the students of Ontario must be challenged by a demanding curriculum suited to their goals. All students require a strong foundation of skills and knowledge when they graduate from secondary school. Students also require the personal qualities to apply their knowledge and skills responsibly as individuals and citizens in a democratic society.'

High quality curriculum is an essential cornerstone of an effective education. With this in mind, the consultation docwnent identified three key components of the new curriculum:

Comprehensive Results- a document outlining the broad knowledge and skills that all students must acquire by the end of secondary school (see Appendix A);
Curriculum Guidelines for each subject (for example, Science), stating the required learning for that subject throughout the secondary school years;
Course Profiles for each individual course offered in secondary school, containing expected outcomes, assessment strategies and standards, instructional materials, support for exceptional students and adults, recommended resources, and suggestions for technological applications.
Throughout the secondary school years, all programs must set high expectations and clearly stated performance standards for all students. Whether their next step is the workplace, college, or university, all students must achieve a sound level of competence. The curriculum must offer carefully sequenced learning and establish a clear structure of prerequisites to ensure that students build on prior knowledge and skills.

Excellent programs must be based on a solid foundation of skills acquired at the elementary level. In order to provide this foundation, communication must occur across all levels of education and must include elementary and postsecondary educators. It is necessary to formalize this process of communication to ensure a smooth continuum of learning for all students, and to facilitate a seamless transition from one level of education to the next.

Curriculum material must be relevant and current, and supported by adequate and up-to-date resources. Curriculum design and renewal should include ongoing input not only from secondary educators, but also from elementary and postsecondary educators, as well as representatives of the community. The consultation process involving the 24 Expert Panels is one valuable example of this. For ongoing consultation, a Provincial Curriculum Advisory Committee for each discipline should be established to ensure that curriculum material is relevant and up-to-date. Using current communication technology, curriculum development could be thought of as an ongoing discussion among partners. The curriculum for the French language schools must also be congruent with the documents Aménagement linguistique and Investir dans I'animation culturelle.

Since most real-hfe experiences are inherently interdisciplinary, provision should be made in the curriculum for courses that combine knowledge and skills across a range of subject areas. There is a need for a framework to develop and evaluate such courses in order to ensure that requirements are of the same high standard as in the individual subjects. The framework should also provide for experiences that enhance interdisciplinary learning within courses, across courses, within the school, and out in the community.

Teachers must receive appropriate in-service training and upgrading to maintain their subject expertise and enhance their teaching skills. As well, they must be equipped to modify programs as required to meet a range of student needs.

Within each discipline, the secondary curriculum must provide a framework for integrating career education to ensure that students become aware of the career potential in each subject area.

Career education could include work experience, community service, co-operative education, and electives in entrepreneurship and other business studies.

For students who are planning to go to community college, the curriculum must include compulsory courses that provide the knowledge and skills required to succeed in college programs. These courses could include research methodologies, time management, problem solving, and critical and creative thinking. They might include language electives that introduce students to a range of reading materials and that develop the students' skills in writing college level papers. Colleges must be involved in developing the curriculum in order to ensure that students are adequately prepared to succeed in the full range of programs available to them. Provisions must be made to increase student awareness about college programs, including prerequisites, appropriate work placements, the variety of programs available, career opportunities, and admission criteria. A provincial policy should be developed to ensure that secondary schools and colleges forge consistent articulation (linkage) agreements. This is particularly important for French-language schools.

For students who are planning postsecondary studies at university, the curriculum must be as rigorous as the current Ontario Academic Courses (OACs). Senior academic courses for university preparation must be developed with the full involvement of university educators in order to ensure that secondary curriculum adequately prepares students for success in first-year university programs. Because knowledge and technology develop so rapidly, it is especially important at this level to involve university teachers and researchers in curriculum review and revision. The OAC Teacher In-service Program (OAC-TIP), although limited in scope, has been successful in monitoring the implementation of the current OAC guidelines by checking that, teachers adhere to the mandated program and by ensuring that evaluation procedures for student assignments and examinations are appropriate. The OAC-TIP model should be used as the basis of a new curriculum monitoring program.

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3.1 KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

[a] Curriculum Guidelines should be developed with central control by the Ministry of Education and Training.

[b] The new curriculum should include 13 English-language and 13 French-language Curriculum Guidelines. Each guideline defines a discipline area.

The recommended Curriculum Guidelines for English-language schools are:

The recommended Curriculum Guidelines for French-Language schools are:

[c] The curriculum should be written in plain language.

[d] The curriculum must be more rigorous, relevant and closely connected to students' lives, whether the student intends to enter the workplace, College, or university after secondary school.

[e] The curriculum must integrate career education in all disciplines.

[f] Implementation of the curriculum should be consistent throughout the province.

[g] Implementation of the curriculum must be monitored by the Ministry of Education and Training.

[h] A curriculum monitoring program, based on the OAC-TIP model, should be developed and implemented.

[i] The Ministry of Education and Training should develop Course Profiles to support teachers in developing classroom programs.

[j] Teacher qualifications must be reviewed and updated where required to successfully implement the new curriculum.

[k] The Ministry must release the new curriculum with enough lead time to allow teachers and school boards to do the necessary professional development to ensure successful implementation.

[l] Learning requirements should be clearly communicated to students, parents, teachers, and the community, and should contain set standards of achievement

[m] The Ministry should establish an ongoing process and schedule of curriculum review, revision, and renewal.

[n] To ensure that the curriculum is relevant and that it remains so, Provincial Curriculum Advisory Committees should be established for each discipline, in partnership with parents, educators, community employers, and postsecondary institutions.

[o] Formal structures for communication between elementary and secondary schools must be established to ensure a continuum of learning.

[p] Employers must be fully involved in developing senior courses for students planning to enter the workplace or apprenticeship programs after secondary school.

[q] The postsecondary sector must be fully involved m developing senior courses for students planning to enter university or college.

[r] A provincial policy should be developed to create and ensure consistent articulation agreements between colleges and secondary schools.

[s] Each French-language school must develop a curriculum plan that integrates Aminagement linguistique, Animation culturelle, etudes interdisciplinaires and Orientation et formation au cheminement de carriere across all disciplines.

[t] The new curriculum for French-language schools must provide a framework for the coordination and delivery of l'Animation culturelle at the school level and within each discipline.

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3.2 Required knowledge and skills

The Comprehensive Results, drafted by the Council of Ontario Directors of Education (CODE) with the support of the Conference Board of Canada, identify the core knowledge, skills and attitudes that all secondary school graduates are expected to have. (See Appendix A.) These are the basic tools or building blocks that graduates need to succeed in the world of work or postsecondary education.

Using an interim version of the Comprehensive Results, the Expert Panels determined the core knowledge, skills and attitudes in their particular discipline. In addition, a French-language Expert Panel identified the required knowledge and skills to be achieved in French-language schools through animation culturelle.

Figure 3 highlights the recurring themes identified by the Expert Panels. These themes have been summarized under the headings of literacy, numeracy, research methodologies, critical thinking, personal life management citizenship, global perspectives, technological competence, ability to make connections, and affirmation culturelle (for French-language schools). They reflect requirements that cross discipline boundaries.

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Figure 5:Discipline-specific curriculum requirements
(Science only - See original document for other areas)

3.2 RECOMMENDATIONS

[a] The curriculum should ensure that all students achieve the following general requirements related to the Comprehensive Results:

[b] The new curriculum must specify the discipline-specific requirements expected of all secondary school graduates. (For details, see Figure 5 in section 3.2.)

[c] The new curriculum must eliminate unnecessary repetition and overlap by identifying which specific disciplines are responsible for delivering the core knowledge and skills specified in the Comprehensive Results.

3.3 New configurations

The recommendations that follow are based on the requirement of 30 credits of I 10 hours each for a secondary school diploma. To support the new curriculum and accommodate the new emphasis on interdisciplinary learning, the credit system must allow for the development of rigorous and meaningful half- and quarter-credit courses.

The approach to core knowledge and core skills is based on the statement of Comprehensive Results, and on the sections of this document dealing with the cross-discipline and discipline-specific requirements identified by the Expert Panels in the Key Directions papers.

The Expert Panels expressed strong support for more compulsory core credits, plus compulsory electives and optional electives appropriate to the student's talents, goals, interests, and postsecondary destination. Programs for compulsory core and compulsory elective credit should provide all students with competency in the cross-disciplinary requirements identified in section 3.2, namely: numeracy, literacy, research methodologies, critical thinking; personal life management; citizenship; global perspectives; technological competence; ability to make connections; and affirmation culturelle (for French language schools only).

Curriculum planning must provide for the sequential development of skills from grades nine to twelve. The compulsory core courses should build a solid foundation that leads to a range of electives and specialized courses. The curriculum should permit the integrated study of important themes and concepts by combining half- or quarter-credits from a number of disciplines or subjects.

Figure 6 is a model of the recommended new approach. This model could be applied to all discipline areas. In each area, courses could be distributed among the three categories of compulsory core, compulsory elective, and optional elective. Figures 7, 8, and 9 show hypothetical examples of how credits might be distributed within a discipline. The examples are based on recommendations from specific Key Directions papers. In this paper, they should not be interpreted as formal recommendations, but only as illustrations of how courses could be configured within a discipline.

Note: Although individual panels made recommendations about the number of compulsory credits in their specific discipline area, this paper does not reflect those detailed recommendations for two reasons. First, consideration of the appropriate number and distribution of compulsory credits falls outside the scope of this project And second, working independently, the panels identified more compulsory credits than could be achieved in four years of secondary school. The total number of compulsory credits recommended by the Expert Panels was 40.5, whereas the maximum number of credits possible in four years is only 32.

Figure 9: Hypothetical model for Science Education

Compulsory Core Courses - All students would be required to take a specified number of core courses with a focus on science, technology, society, and the environment. For example:

Compulsory Elective Courses -
All students would be required to select, for example, one full credit from this menu:

Optional Elective Modules -
Students would be able to select additional modules from this menu:

Final evaluation in courses can take a variety of forms other than the traditional final written exam. Alternatives could include an oral exam, a presentation, or a demonstration of acquired skills and knowledge in a practical application.

Program evaluation

Ongoing evaluation of programs is essential to enable teachers to modify content and teaching strategies. Extemal partners and experts from the community could be involved in the evaluation process.

The OAC Teacher In-service Program model (TIP) is designed to ensure province-wide consistency in the format of formal examinations for all OAC courses. TIP is an excellent example of a model that provides teachers with standards for examining the content of an assessment and for ensuring a consistent evaluation method.

Grade 11 assessment The Gmde 11 assessment should be based on provincial curriculum requirements and standards, and should reflect the nature of the secondary school program. The results of the Grade 11 assessment should be considered when curriculum is being reviewed and revised.

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3.4 KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

[a] All student assessment and evaluation, including the final evaluation, must use a variety of instruments, techniques and strategies.

[b) Assessment and evaluation must measure inteflectual/cognitive achievement, practical achievement, and personal/social achievement.

[c] Assessment and evaluation must be ongoing, linked to course requirements, and based on clear levels of performance.

[d] Assessment and evaluation must be clearly explained to parents and students.

[e] The grade 11 assessment should be based on provincial requirements and standards.

[fl Results of the grade 11 assessment should provide input into the ongoing review and revision of the curriculum.