Education
Report casts doubt on two curriculum streams for Ontario’s Grade 9 students
This piece originally appeared in The Globe and Mail and Global News.
Ontario students should not have to choose between so-called applied and academic programs at the start of high school, an education lobby group said in a report released Monday.
People for Education said research it has done, as well as past studies by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, suggest splitting students into separate streams contributes to lacklustre grades for those from lower income families.
"Dividing students in this way has only exacerbated inequality," Annie Kidder, the executive director of People for Education, said in an interview. Students starting in Grade 9 must choose either applied courses, which focus on essential concepts and practical applications, or the academic stream, which employs theory and abstract problems.