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By Kristin RushowyQueen's Park Bureau
Isabel TeotonioEducation Reporter Thu., Oct. 20, 2022 timer4 min. read The 2021-22 results, released Thursday morning, show that just 47 per cent of Grade 6 students are meeting the provincial standard in math.Toronto Star The province is promising “math action teams” to help struggling schools following the release of dismal scores in Ontario-wide testing, as well as regular screening in the early grades to help identify reading troubles. Education Minister Stephen Lecce made the announcement Thursday afternoon, just hours after the Education Quality and Accountability Office posted details of last spring’s testing of students, which found 59 per cent of Grades 3 students met the provincial standard in math — equivalent to an A or B — while just 47 per cent of Grade 6 students did. Lecce also provided details of the province’s payout to parents, a $365-million fund that will provide $200 per child up to age 18, and $250 for those with special needs up to age 21. The money is to cover private tutoring or supplies for their children — although parents aren’t expected to submit any proof of how it is spent — and applications are now being accepted online.
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By Dr Jeff Hawkins
E: [email protected] Introduction A question I often am asked from my adult ESL students from around the globe (Indonesia, Mexico, Spain, Russia, Middle East) is what is the difference between IELTSs and or CELPIP. This blog addresses this question. Overview: Why English Language Tests? Increasingly today, countries require evidence a total score from an ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEST like IELTS that you have proficiency in English and are ready to enter the workforce and contribute to society in the official language or languages of that place. For example, if you decide to immigrate to the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, you will need to show proof of your English language skills and that is the why you must write an English language test like IELTS< CELPIP. These different TESTS determine and score English language ability based on 4 key skills in SPEAKING< READING< WRITING>LISTENING. The score is based on academic ability in the 4 key skills. I mean to say all of these English Tests are fundamentally ACADEMIC tests of English skills even though the general test for Immigration purposes is easier than the academic test to enter University. Why so hard? A very important point to remember is that none of the English language test that I have named above is easy to do because no person is strong in all 4 skills of English (reading, writing, listening and speaking). At Aardvark, I help ESL Adults that struggle gigantically with ONE or TWO aspects of the test. Either writing, reading or another student will want Speaking and Listening, it all depends on which area you need to focus on. At Aardvark, we adapt our ESL program to meet the students test requirements. Recently, I had one gentleman from Mexico that only wanted LISTENING and we focused for 20 hours on Listening skills. You can easily see that he is going to CRUSH the CELPIP or IELTS listening section when he takes the test in December 2021. IELTS: INTERNATIONAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEST The IELTS test is the oldest and most recognized English Proficeiny test around the globe for ESL adults that want to attend University or for immigration purposes. For those looking to go to any country internationally not just Canada, you should take the IELTS test, as it is the gold standard in English Language testing. The IELTS test is the father of all other English language test and many of the newer tests follow the IELTS format in listening, speaking, reading and writing in order to evaluate and score a person English language proficiency. A key difference of the IELTS test is that on the LISTENING section, the IELTS Test uses native speakers with accents from all around the globe that includes: Ireland, England, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, United States. As a result, the IELTS test listening section can be much harder than the CELPIP because the student (YOU) must be able to understand the accent and intonation of British English. This can be quite a challenge for someone that has lived only in Canada for the last 10 years and is accustom to the sounds, register of Canadian English. If you are prepared to write the IELTS, you can score well on any other English language tests – no mistake. CELPIP: Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program (CELPIP) is an English language proficiency test. The CELPIP test much like the IELTS follows the format of Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking. The key difference is that the listening section ONLY USES Canadian speakers and Canadian accents. This can be a huge advantage for anyone that has lived in Canada for a number of years or studied Canadian English. The CELPIP test is usually taken to enter Canadian University or for permanent residency purposes. That is to say, to become a permanent residence of Canada you can take the CELPIP test to increase your overall immigration score. The CELPIP test also offers more VISUAL input online to make the test more user friendly. However, like the CELPIP is very difficult to score well on and one must know the testing tricks of the trade to perform well and realize your dream of becoming a permanent resident of Canada. TEST TIPS There is nothing usual or normal about taking the IELTS or CELPIP English Test. Instead, theses test are high stakes and measured on academic performance alone. In other words, no academic ability means NO SCORE on the IELTS or CELPIP. Even a native speaker of English will have difficulty passing the tests without preparation or help from an experienced IELTS / CELPIP teacher. Just because you have lived in Canada for 20 years, does not mean you will automatically pass the CELPIP test. Below are a few tips to get you started to help with your test. TIP #1: The test is a performance, a dramatic performance and you need to be ready to provide an extra ordinary amount of detail on every section of the test: namely the WRITING and SPEAKING sections. No details, no high score. TIP #2: Vocabulary and Grammar: You need to show synonyms in the speaking and writing sections as well as control over more complex grammar such as the present perfect (have eaten, have seen). Better vocabulary and grammar show the examiner that you are a fluent speaker of English. DO NOT use the same words and grammar again and again if you want to score high. TIP #3: READING & LISTENING: Is all about the key words and the ability to identify the key words in reading and the listening section. Although the CELPIP and IELTS are essentially different tests the underlying English language skills you need are ACADEMIC in English. Give us an email today [email protected] today and you will quickly achieve your academic test goals. By Chris Herhalt Web Content Writer, CP24 Published Tuesday, June 8, 2021 9:46AM
Start TORONTO -- Ontario public school students are likely two to three months behind in their learning because of school closures brought on by COVID-19, leading to life-long losses in their expected earnings as adults if efforts aren’t made to bring them up to speed, says a new analysis by the COVID-19 Science Table. Citing research from the U.S., Holland and the UK, epidemiologists advising the Ontario government say that pupils are anywhere from 1.6 to 3.3 months behind where they would have been academically if in-person learning was not shut because of COVID-19 starting last March. “While there are numerous differences in how studies measure the impact of COVID-19-related disruptions on learning (i.e., standard deviations, months behind, scaled points behind, percentages of students not at grade level), most point to average achievement that was well behind that of earlier cohorts, measured at the same point in preceding school year(s),” authors wrote in a brief published on Monday. The authors found that virtual learning led to increased absenteeism, unexplained declines in overall school enrolment and sustained declines in the amount of time pupils report devoting to completing homework. The learning gaps are less pronounced at younger grades but increase among older students. The impact of the declines, called skill loss, unaddressed, could cost the Canadian economy for decades. “Each month of skill loss is predicted to cause a one per cent drop in lifetime earnings for affected cohorts and is estimated to decrease the national income by 0.5 percent per year, which would translate to a GDP loss for Canada of 1.6 trillion,” authors wrote in the brief. As of May 15, Ontario elementary and secondary schools were for 20 weeks, the longest of any school system in Canada, with the length of that closure set to extend to 26 weeks by the end of June. Last week, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said schools would not resume in-person instruction in June, as their in-person operations could increase COVID-19 transmission, spread of the new Delta variant, and jeopardize plans to reopen the rest of the economy. The decision also signalled a reversal from claims made often earlier in the year by Education Minister Stephen Lecce, who said schools were not a significant source of COVID-19 transmission and merely amplified spread of the virus already circulating in the community. The Science Advisory Table says there is a need for additional education funding in the 2021-2022 school year to address and perhaps erase the skill gap caused by online learning. “There is a need for explicit education recovery strategies to be funded in addition to regular schooling budgets. Strategies may include active measures to ensure appropriate universal responses (overall curriculum adaptations, instruction, and student supports), and targeted intensive accelerated learning programs for groups that have been most disadvantaged by health and education effects of COVID-19.” A ministry of education official said the province plans to spend $85.5 million this school year on targeted efforts to bring students’ reading, writing and numeracy back on track, as well as $62 million for summer school. The province will also continue to offer virtual tutoring through the TVO platform. “We just announced the largest investment in public education in Ontario history — in addition to a $1.6 billion plan to protect the safety of children and a $85 million plan to help them recover from learning loss with a focus on mental health, math and reading supports,” Ministry of Education spokesperson Caitlin Clark told CP24. “It also includes the largest summer learning program in Ontario history and includes access to tutors — including math educators — for children in both English and French.” Call 705-417-3275 Aardvark and Get the A+ Advantage Today! 75% of kids who don't overcome reading lag by Grade 3 continue struggling through school life: literacy expert Jessica Wong · CBC News · Posted: May 09, 2021 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: May 9
Article quote: "Teachers can't see which children are struggling if they're not in the same room." Alarm bells are ringing for some worried parents and educational experts about how pandemic-disrupted schooling is affecting this generation of students, particularly the development of Canada's youngest learners. Jon Bahen finds the more people in his work-from-home Zoom meetings, the less effective they can be. Imagine then how difficult it is for a child struggling with school to vie for attention in an online class alongside nearly 30 others, said the Barrie, Ont., parent. When they received November's report card, Bahen and his wife Rina D'Angelo were shocked to learn that their shy seven-year-old son Connor is a full year behind in his reading and writing. The couple also juggles a daughter in junior kindergarten and an eight-month-old baby, but they regularly sit alongside Connor during his once-again online classes. They read with their second-grader every day and are now hiring a tutor to help him catch up. "His reading and writing have definitely suffered with just the inconsistent education of going back and forth and from in-person to online," said D'Angelo. She's noticed it affects everything from solving math problems to being able to independently complete assignments. "It's just a snowball effect that will affect everything else he needs to learn," she said. "Everyone is doing their best, yet kids are falling behind." School during the pandemic has looked different depending on region, but many students have experienced disorienting shifts between virtual and in-person learning due to school closures. For worried parents, education researchers and developmental experts, alarm bells are ringing about how all the disruption is affecting this generation of students, particularly Canada's youngest learners. Researchers detecting delaysAn ongoing U.K. project is examining four- and five-year-olds who started school last September. In its initial findings, 76 per cent of the participating schools reported they have needed more support than the kindergartners who started in previous years, primarily with communication and language development, personal, social and emotional development, and literacy. Wearing masks during the pandemic has created a unique set of challenges for kids including recognizing other people, reading emotions and learning to talk. But researchers say there are simple things adults can do to help them out. 5:59Here in Canada, education researcher George Georgiou has already detected reading deficits among primary-aged students in Alberta. After conducting testing in schools around Edmonton last fall, he discovered that students in Grades 1 through 3 were reading at about eight to 12 months below their grade levels Georgiou, a professor of education at the University of Alberta, is now working with the provincial education ministry to expand his voluntary testing program provincewide to quickly identify reading struggles and provide schools with resources and intensive strategies to bring affected students up to speed. "We know that about 75 per cent of the children who do not overcome their reading difficulties by the end of Grade 3, they continue to struggle throughout their school life," said Georgiou, director of the university's J.P. Das Centre on Developmental and Learning Disabilities. "It's in our best interest to support these kids, identify them as soon as possible and provide them with intensive intervention so that they overcome their early reading difficulties." In Alberta school divisions that directly intervened with struggling readers last fall and winter, 'about 80 per cent of their students were able to catch up,' said George Georgiou, an Edmonton-based education professor. (Samuel Martin/CBC)School divisions that directly intervened with struggling readers last fall and winter helped about 80 per cent of students catch up. "If we scale this up across Alberta… we are hopeful that this will help all the kids who are in need," he said One major wrinkle is online schooling, which Alberta said this week it's returning to for at least two weeks province-wide. In his recent work, Georgiou found that kids learning online have been more affected by reading difficulties than those learning in person, with students who already struggled before COVID-19 at the greatest disadvantage. While online intervention programs can help struggling readers improve somewhat, Georgiou said that studies show they are not as effective as face-to-face instruction. Some skills 'harder to pick up later' Disruptions to schooling can also delay detection of new developmental concerns or affect educational staff's ability to deliver school-based treatment for students with pre-existing diagnoses or concerns. The whole system of monitoring development of young children has been affected by the pandemic, says Dr. Ripudaman Minhas, a developmental pediatrician at St. Michael's Hospital and assistant professor in the department of pediatrics at the University of Toronto. 'When families are stressed, it changes the dynamics' at home, says pediatrician 4 days ago Pandemic stress can be passed on to children and teens, affecting their development and ability to pick up skills, says developmental pediatrician Ripudaman Minhas. 1:33"This has impacted across the whole pathway for families, from identification of a child who may be struggling… all the way to difficulties with getting referred in," he said. "Our capacities within clinics have slowed down as well, which has made our wait list swell up." Children's resilience gives researcher hopeThis is a concern because children's brains are primed to learn many skills at specific, critical periods of development, Minhas said. "We know that when the acquisition of those skills — and the experiences that add to that — are delayed, that they're harder to pick up later." The resilience of children and how they've adapted to pandemic measures at school makes him hopeful they will also be able to adapt quickly to post-pandemic life. Still he said, there will be lingering impacts, especially for those whose families have had more dire experiences this past year. "There is a worry about this wave that's going to come through the system that was already strained as it was," Minhas said. Children's brains primed to learn many skills at very specific, critical periods of development. 'We know that when the acquisition of those skills — and the experiences that add to that — are delayed, that they're harder to pick up later,' said developmental pediatrician Dr. Ripudaman Minhas. (Steve Bruce/CBC)Some supports in place to help students recoverRe-engaging and supporting students, including their mental health, as well as paying attention to catching the youngest students up on reading and math are on the radar for several education ministries that announced budget plans for the next school year. Ontario said it will devote funding to learning recovery, while Quebec introduced a "school success" plan that includes extending a tutoring program targeting students who've fallen behind. Parent Rina D'Angelo said getting students back into a physical classroom is vital. "Get teachers vaccinated, implement smaller class sizes or [buy] PPE — whatever needs to be done to ensure that these children's education isn't disrupted," she said. "Teachers can't see which children are struggling if they're not in the same room." CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices|About CBC News |
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