what extent is the Ontario experience consistent, or not

Making Sustainable Large-Scale Change Possible : The Ontario Experience

Whoever said that the only constant thing in the world is change is indeed a sage . That person could have acknowledged the statement based on personal experiences . Everything in the world changes from time to time- persons , government and even the climate . Changes are staple events in the world

Changes often come as surprises . On organizational level , change could come as a way of intervention which may bring forth negative or positive consequences . The world today is filled with movements of people clamouring

for change . The daily news in the television flash with headlines on citizens calling on their governments for reform students protesting on the streets to demand democracy environmentalists and animal-rights advocates asking for ban on chemicals and so on Practically , people yearn for change in their personal lives , work laws , and in the government

The education sector in some countries goes for change , too . In Ontario , Canada an overhaul in the public education system took place to address the problems plaguing the system . Levin (2007 ) summarized the change as a strategy which serves as an example of large-scale change in education that is respectful of educators , fair to students and communities and based on the best available knowledge (p . 323

The education system in Ontario , Canada suffered from setbacks since early 1990s due to government measures imposed (Levin , 2007 . There were reductions in staffing levels and increased in teachers ' workloads Consequently , these yielded labour strikes , dissatisfaction and low-morale among the teachers . Levin reported that during the late 1990s , a change in the government system took place which adversely affected the education system . Local school districts were reduced to half , school principals were taken out of the teachers ' union and significant amount of funding was cut . Teachers took the brunt of these changes as the government then was deemed as critical of public teachers and schools . Levin cited that the people were unhappy and dissatisfied with the public education system

Canada 's 2003 election changed the educational atmosphere as it became the rallying cry of the Liberal Party , which won the election . Levin pointed out that the new government crafted new strategies (dubbed as the Literacy and Numeracy Strategy and the Student Success Strategy ) in late 2003 to solve the problem of public education . These have two main goals : to improve elementary school literacy and numeracy outcomes and increase high school graduation rates

Now on its almost fifth year of implementation , the strategies proved effective . The Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat of the of Ontario 's Ministry of Education reported the following accomplishments through its 2006 Project Report , Making It Happen : improved overall provincial rate of 64 for reading , writing and mathematics in Grade about 17 ,000 schools improved by five or more percent in their Grade 6 reading scores over 2000 schools got better reading scores among Grade 3 students while 900 schools did better on both the Grades 3 and 6 reading scores

Moreover , Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat reported...