Ontario Proposes Bill to Make High School Attendance Worth Up to 15 Percent of Students’ Marks

Ontario high school students could soon see their attendance and participation make up a substantial portion of their final grades, as the province moves to revamp the classroom evaluation methods.

Policy changes impacting teacher instruction and student grades in class were announced this week by Education Minister Paul Calandra as part of a broader initiative aiming to overhaul the effectiveness of educational governance.

He introduced the Putting Student Achievement First Act during an April 13 press conference, a piece of legislation that he said is aimed at strengthening school board oversight and accountability while also better preparing students to enter the workforce.

The newly proposed measures in Bill 101 primarily focus on school board administration and trustees, who are expected to play a reduced role in the future, but some of the measures contained in the bill directly impact students.

Participation and attendance will count for 15 percent of the final grade for Grades 9 and 10, and 10 percent for students in Grades 11 and 12, if the legislation becomes law.

Calandra told reporters the proposed change to incorporate attendance and participation into a student’s grade comes after speaking to teachers throughout the province, who have said that decreasing attendance is leading to challenges in classroom management.

Absenteeism has climbed since the pandemic and has not come back down to normal levels, he said.

The current system, in which 100 percent of student marks are based on coursework, does not emphasize the importance of participation or prepare youth for the workforce—a time where showing up matters, the minister said.

“All of you here today… you have to be here and do your work,” he said, addressing reporters. “That is what students are going to face when they’re out in public, when they’re out working.”

Absences beyond student control, such as illness, snow days, and sports tournaments will not affect grades, Calandra said. Religious holidays and traditional hunting times for First Nations students will also be exempt.

Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation president Martha Hradowy said she agreed that student absenteeism has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic and should be addressed.

But she said teachers would prefer to achieve this by increasing resources so students feel supported and are more likely to attend class, instead of implementing attendance grades.

She said in a press release that she would instead like to see the province focus on other problems such as “larger class sizes, fewer supports, and rising violence.”

The legislation also proposes making written exams mandatory on official exam days and teachers would also need to provide greater clarity on how students’ final marks are calculated.

Hradowy noted that some schools and boards had moved away from giving final exams, and most teachers support reinstating them.

Calandra was asked during his press conference if he planned to provide standardized exam formats, but he said that was not on his radar at the moment.

Interim Ontario Liberal leader John Fraser said the most urgent issues in education are class sizes and special education, and that the legislation doesn’t address those needs.

“Nothing in Bill 101 is going to make any kids’ class size smaller,” he told reporters during a media scrum at Queen’s Park. “It’s not going to help a child with an exceptional need who needs help and it’s not going to address the mental health crisis and that’s the problem in our schools. That’s why they’re not safe.”

Learning Resources

Bill 101 will also mandate the use of ministry-approved learning resources, such as lesson plans and student materials, in classrooms across the province. Calandra said this would support greater consistency in delivering the new curriculum but also make it easier for teachers to access high-quality materials.

The change will ensure students “have an equal chance to succeed no matter where they live,” the province said in a press release.

Calandra said the change would make it easier for teachers to prepare lessons.

“I hear this constantly as well, that teachers are being asked to fill in too many of the blanks when it comes to the delivery of the curriculum,” Calandra said. “They spend a lot of time creating tests, they spend a lot of time creating a lesson plan, because they’re being forced to fill in the blanks of what has become a very thin curriculum document from the province over the years.”

The province said teachers would still have the option of using supplementary materials based on student needs, but the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) has expressed concern that the change could remove the ability of educators to respond to the needs of their individual classrooms.

“By centralizing control over which learning resources can be used in classrooms and directing assessment practices, the Ford government is stripping educators of the professional judgement [sic] they rely on to meet students’ needs,” the union said in a statement.

Trustee Changes

The legislation will also introduce a new chief executive officer role in every public and Catholic board. The CEO will be responsible for financial and operational oversight and will be required to have business qualifications, Calandra said.

“They will be responsible for budgets, staffing, and ensuring strong accountable management,” he said.

Each board will also have a chief education officer, who will be appointed by the CEO, to focus on student achievement. This role requires teaching qualifications, including an Ontario College of Teachers membership or equivalent, the province said.

Two new managers in place for each board also means the role of trustees will change, the minister said.

“Trustees will continue to play a role, but that role will change significantly,” Calandra told reporters. “We will introduce a salary cap, reduce the number of elected trustees to more than 12 per board, and eliminate most expense accounts except for modest clearly defined budgets in rural and remote boards.”

The bargaining process with unions will also change under the new legislation. The Council of Ontario Directors of Education will serve as the primary employer bargaining agency for English public and English Catholic boards to ensure collective bargaining is conducted by professional school board personnel with expertise in the operational affairs of the board, he said.

Hradowy said the secondary school teachers’ union is concerned about the proposed changes.

“It is difficult to see how putting CEOs with no background in education in charge of bargaining will benefit Ontario’s students,” she said in the union’s press release.

Bill 101 achieved second reading in the legislature on April 14 but must be reviewed by a committee of MPPs and pass third reading in the legislature to receive royal assent.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.