Ep 14. Is Destreaming Grade 9 Math a Good Thing?

In Ontario, Canada, the Ministry of Education just announced a brand new math curriculum for grade 9 students as of September 2021. This new curriculum will have a focus on financial literacy, coding and much more real life application of math.

However, the controversial topics around this new curriculum is the fact that Ontario also plans to destream math. This means there will no longer be "Applied" and "Academic" math. For the longest time, all the strong students would be in the academic stream and the weaker students would be in the Applied stream. 

On this episode I invited Jason To, who is the Coordinator of Secondary Mathematics and Academic Pathways in the Toronto District School Board. Previous to this role, Jason was a math and science teacher at Westview Centennial Secondary School in Toronto for 13 years.

I ask Jason:

What does the new curriculum focus on? How is it different from the old?

Why are we eliminating streams?

How does a math teacher, teach math to a wide range of abilities now in a classroom?

His thoughts on Advanced Placement (AP)  and the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. Are these essentially streaming? Should they still be in place?

and much more!

You can follow Jason on Twitter at @Jason_To