Ontario Court rules that mandatory provincial math test for new teachers is racist

BY PAUL JUNOR

There has been controversy generated by the Ontario Ministry of Education’s requirement that all new teachers in Ontario pass a mandatory provincial math test.

This additional requirement was instituted in 2021 to ensure that teachers have a basic background in mathematics to teach in Ontario publicly funded schools. It was part of an overall provincial strategy that the government hopes would result in improvement in the performance of Ontario students on the Education Quality and Accountability Office tests. These tests are written by students in Grades 3,6 and 9 as well as by Grade 10 students who have to pass the OSSLT test as a graduation requirement.

According to the Ontario Teacher Candidates Council (OTCC), which was formed in October 2021 to advocate for teacher candidates across Ontario, “We believe that this test is not equitable, fair, justified or backed by data. The EQAO office has been rushed into creating a massive test in just months. In the past, EQAO has taken three years to roll out new tests. There is no definitive evidence which suggests that new teachers will become more effective math instructors as a result of this test, nor that students will perform better in math as a result of this.”

The standardized math test for new teachers was being challenged in court due to the work of the advocacy group, OTCC. OTCC strongly maintained that the Math Proficiency Test (MPT) had negative deleterious effects on racial candidates. The Ontario Superior Court of Justice Divisional Court issued a ruling on Friday, December 16^th, 2021 found it to be unconstitutional.

The court decision states, “Racialized students benefit from being taught by racialized teachers. The deleterious effects of the (test) on the racialized teacher candidates who have been unsuccessful in the test outweighs its benefits. A declaration shall issue that the legislative provisions that created the MFT are of or force and effect.”

Bella Lewkowicz, one of the founders of the OTCC reported that it is a “Huge victory,” and “It’s not often that educators can claim victory over the Ministry of Education.”

Then there is the case of Richard Atimniraye Nyelade. He was born in Cameroon and has two Master’s degrees and a Bachelor’s degree, and even though he completed the University of Ottawa Teaching program, he failed the MPT two times. The MFT consists of fifty mathematical questions with twenty-one of them based on knowledge of math pedagogy. In order to pass the MFT, the teacher’s candidate must achieve a mark of 70% or higher on both the mathematics part and the pedagogical part. Nyelade did well on the math part but failed the pedagogy component. He states, “The mathematics part is all about logic. The pedagogical part is a lot of memory work.”

Chris Cowley, President of the Ontario Teachers’ Federation (OTF) is ecstatic with the ruling. In a press release on December 17^th, 2021 he wrote, “OTF applauded the effort of the OTCC for pursuing this successful legal challenge. There is no research to suggest that a standardized test would improve the student outcomes or enhance teacher pedagogy. Ontario has some of the best educated teachers in the world and this decision reinforces their professionalism.”