ABOUT THE MINISTRY

LEARNING IN ONTARIO

Published Results-based Plan 2006/07

Previous Years:

2002-2003/2003-2004

Table of Contents

Published Results-based Plan 2006/07

Overview Statement
Organization Chart
Acts Administered by the Ministry of Education
Agencies, Boards, Commissions
Published Results-Based Plan 2006/07

Ministry Financial Information

Table 1: Ministry Planned Expenditures 2006/07
Table 2: Ministry Planned Expenditures by Program Name 2006/07

Appendix I:

Published Results-based Plan 2005/06 and Annual Report 2004/05

2005/06 Published Results-based Plan
Ministry Planned Expenditures 2005/06
Ministry Planned Expenditures by Program Name 2005/06
2004/05 Annual Report
Ministry Expenditures

Adobe Acrobat version (PDF, 102 KB)

Overview Statement

The Ministry of Education strives to promote a strong, vibrant, publicly funded education system that is focused on three goals: high levels of student achievement, reduced gaps in student achievement, and high levels of public confidence in public education.

To achieve these goals the Ministry of Education will focus activities on:

Identifying and supporting effective teaching, learning and assessment practices
Identifying and supporting effective gap-reducing practices
Engaging students, families and communities in building a supportive learning environment
Increasing system effectiveness, efficiency, transparency and responsiveness

The government of Ontario is committed to strengthening Ontario through strengthening its people. Public education is considered the most important investment that can be made for the future of Ontario. Strong public schools are the foundation for a strong economy and a cohesive society.

Ministry Vision

Ontario students will receive the best public education in the world, measured by high levels of achievement and engagement for all students. Successful learning outcomes will give all students the skills, knowledge and opportunities to attain their potential, to pursue lifelong learning, and to contribute to a prosperous, cohesive society.

Mission

The ministry will seek relationships with the education sector and the public that are more interactive, more mutually influential and that mobilize people’s commitment and collective ingenuity to address problems at a deeper level than ever before with correspondingly greater results.

Ministry of Education Organization Chart (PDF, 15 KB)

Legislation

Acts

Education Act, R.S.O. 1990, c.E.2 as amended by S.O. 1991, c.10; S.O. 1991, c.15; S.O. 1992, c.15; S.O. 1992, c.16; S.O. 1992, c.17; S.O. 1992, c.27; S.O. 1992, c.32; S.O. 1993, c.11; S.O. 1993, c.23; S.O. 1993, c.26; S.O. 1993, c.27, Sched.; S.O. 1993, c.41; S.O. 1994, c.1; S.O. 1994, c.17; S.O. 1994, c.23; S.O. 1994, c.27; S.O. 1995, c.4; S.O. 1996, c.2; S.O. 1996, c.11; S.O. 1996, c.12; S.O. 1996, c.13; S.O. 1996, c.32; S.O. 1997, c.3; S.O. 1997, c.16; S.O. 1997, c.19; S.O. 1997, c.22; S.O. 1997, c.27; S.O. 1997, c.31; S.O. 1997, c.32; S.O. 1997, c.43, Sched.; S.O. 1998, c.3; S.O. 1998, c.14; S.O. 1998, c.33; S.O. 1999, c.6; S.O. 1999, c.9; S.O. 2000, c.5; S.O. 2000, c.11; S.O. 2000, c.12; S.O. 2000, c.25; S.O. 2000, c.26, Sched; S.O. 2001, c. 8; S.O. 2001, c. 13; S.O. 2001, c. 14, Sched.; S.O. 2001, c.17; S.O. 2001, c.23; S.O. 2001, c.24; 2002, c. 7; 2002, c. 8, Sched. A; 2002, c. 8, Sched. I; 2002, c. 17, Sched. C,; 2002, c. 17, Sched. D; 2002, c. 17, Sched. F, Table; 2002, c. 18, Sched. G; 2002, c.22; 2003, c.2; 2004, c.8; 2004, c.31; 2005, c.4; 2005, c.5; 2006, c. 2; 2006, c. 5

Education Accountability Act, 2000, c. 11

Education Quality and Accountability Office Act, 1996, S.O. 1996, c.11; S.O. 1997, c.31; 2004, c.8; 2004, c.17

Fairness for Parents and Employees Act (Teachers= Withdrawal of Services) 1997, c. 32

Instructional Time: Minimum Standards Act, 1998, S.O. 1998, c.14

Ontario College of Teachers Act, 1996, S.O. 1996, c.12, as amended by S.O. 1997, c.31; 2001, c.9; 2001, c.14; 2001, c.24; 2002, c.7; 2004, c.26

Ontario Educational Communications Authority Act, R.S.O. 1990, c.O. 12

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education Repeal Act, 1996, S.O. 1996, c.16

Ontario School Trustees= Council Act, R.S.O. 1980, c.355

Ottawa-Carleton French-Language School Board Transferred Employees Act, R.S.O. 1990, c.O.44 as amended by S.O. 1995, c.1; S.O. 1997, c.31; 2002, c.17, Sched. F, Table.

Provincial Schools Negotiations Act, R.S.O. 1990, c.P.35 as amended by S.O. 1996, c.12; S.O. 1997, c.31; 2003, c.2

Quality in the Classroom Act, 2001, S.O. 2001, c. 24

School Trust Conveyances Act, R.S.O. 1990, c.S.3; 2002, c.17, Sched. F, Table.

Stability and Excellence in Education Act, 2001. S.O. 2001, c.14

Student Protection Act, 2002, S.O. c.7

Teachers’ Pension Act, R.S.O. 1990, c.T.1 as amended by S.O. 1991, vol.2, c.52; S.O. 1993, c.39; S.O. 1998, c.34; 2005, c. 31, Sched. 21

Teachers’ Pension Act, 1989, S.O. 1989, c.92; S.O. 1993, c.39; S.O. 1998, c.34

Teaching Profession Act, R.S.O. 1990, c.T.2, amended 1991, vol.2, c.52; S.O. 1996, c.12; S.O. 1997, c.31; S.O. 2000, c.12; 2002, c.7

Upper Canada College Act, R.S.O. 1937, c.373; 1958, c.120

Notes:

Legislation of particular importance to the Ministry of Education administered by other ministries includes: Assessment Act, Municipal Elections Act, 1996, Municipal Act, 2001, Municipal Conflict of Interest Act, Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, Municipal Property Assessment Corporation Act, 1997, the Immunization of School Pupils Act and the Back to School Act (Toronto and Windsor), 2001.
The Ministry of Education is also responsible for the administration of some "back-to-work" legislation, such as the Back to School Act, 1998, S.O. 1998, c. 13; and the Back to School Act (Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board), 2000, c. 23.
The list does not include all private Acts, which may be relevant to the Ministry of Education; nor does it include Acts that are purely amending Acts.

Agencies, Boards and Commissions (ABCs)

Agencies, Boards and Commissions	2006-07 Expense Estimates	2005-06 Interim Actuals
Advisory Council on Special Education	$65,000	$68,049
Ontario Educational Communications Authority-TVOntario	$51,460,800	$51,460,800
Education Quality and Accountability Office	$38,084,100	$34,610,000
Languages of Instruction Commission	$27,900	$25,237
Ontario Special Education Tribunals	$400,000	$256,111
Provincial Schools Authority	$20,200	$33,940

Minister’s Advisory Council On Special Education

The Minister’s Advisory Council on Special Education advises the Minister of Education on any matter related to the establishment and provision of special education programs and services for exceptional students, including the identification and provision of early intervention programs for students with special needs.

Ontario Educational Communications Authority (TVOntario)

Within the context of the Ontario Educational Communications Authority Act, the federal Broadcasting Act and its CRTC licences, TVOntario's mandate is to serve as an adjunct to the formal education and training systems in Ontario, by using television and other communications technologies to provide high-quality educational programs, curriculum resources and distance education courses in English and in French. TVOntario delivers its programs and services to Ontarians through two educational television networks – TVO (English-language) and TFO (French-language) – and the Independent Learning Centre, the province's elementary and secondary correspondence school.

Education Quality And Accountability Office (EQAO)

EQAO is an independent agency responsible for assuring greater accountability and enhancing of the quality of education in Ontario. This is achieved through the development and administration of large-scale student assessments and the public release of assessment findings together with recommendations for system improvement.

Languages of Instruction Commission

The Languages of Instruction Commission of Ontario was established to help resolve disputes over the provision of education programs in the language of a French or English minority group. The commission intercedes in conflicts between school authorities and French-language rights holders groups.

Ontario Special Education Tribunals (English / French)

The Special Education Tribunals provide a final avenue of appeal for parents who disagree with recommendations of the Identification, Placement and Review Committee (IPRC), for either the identification of a pupil as an exceptional pupil or the placement of an exceptional pupil.

Provincial Schools Authority

The Provincial Schools Authority (PSA) was established in 1975 under the Provincial Schools Negotiations Act. The Act created a bargaining unit of all teachers employed in provincially operated schools. The PSA negotiates a collective agreement with the Federation of Provincial School Authority Teachers (FOPSAT) on behalf of the ministries of Education, and Community Safety and Correctional Services. The PSA is the employer of record for teachers, principals and vice-principals. It handles grievance, leaves and other administrative functions.

Published Results-Based Plan 2006/07

The Ministry of Education’s goal is to achieve and maintain a high quality and sustainable publicly funded education system. The ministry is focused on developing a flexible innovative school organization, based on: transparent accountability, creating a results-focused and measurable platform, evidence-based instruction, building public confidence and making public education a more accessible and affordable commodity.

Every Ontarian needs the opportunity to succeed — opportunity that begins with education. Ontario's future prosperity depends on the education and skills of its people.

To achieve these goals the Ministry of Education has focused on several specific strategies and performance measures.

Education Overview

The Ministry of Education is committed to providing the best publicly funded education system for Ontario’s students. The plan to build opportunity through investments in smaller classes, better student achievement and higher secondary-school graduation rates includes:

Increasing Grants for Student Needs (GSN) funding to school boards by more than $400 million in 2006-07 from last year to $17.3 billion.
Implementing the next steps towards creating a cap of 20 students per primary class by 2008.
Providing support to the government’s target of graduating 85 per cent of its students by 2010, up from just 68 per cent in 2003-04. The result would be an increase of more than 20,000 graduates per year and a reduction in the drop-out rate by half.
Supporting students to achieve higher provincial test results in reading, writing and math. This includes raising the number of Grade 6 students meeting or exceeding the provincial standards in reading, writing and math to 75 per cent by 2008 — a significant increase from 54 per cent in 2003-04.

Student Success/Learning to 18 Strategy:

Ontario will make a significant step towards achieving dramatically higher secondary school graduation rates, reducing the number of students who drop out and increasing the number of students who pursue further education over the next five years.

The Student Success Strategy is the government’s three-phase approach for meeting its graduation target of 85 per cent of students by 2010. Phases one and two have already started making a positive impact in schools. Phase three, announced in December 2005, will make further significant improvements that will transform secondary school education.

Phase three includes:

Adding new Specialist High Skills Major to the Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) that will allow students to complete a minimum bundle of courses in specific high-skills areas of concentration that lead to employment sectors, apprenticeships and postsecondary destinations.
Introducing legislation that, if passed, will require students to keep learning in a classroom, apprenticeship or workplace training program until age 18 or until they graduate.
Expanding co-operative education programs through increased partnerships with business and community organizations.
Creating new dual credit programs to allow students to earn several credits toward an OSSD through postsecondary and apprenticeship courses.
Introducing a new coordinated effort and formal links between high schools and postsecondary destinations to help students reach higher.

Literacy and Numeracy Strategy:

Our Literacy and Numeracy strategy is built on several premises — the most important of which is that every child in the province should be able to read, write, do math and comprehend at a high level by the age of 12 as the necessary foundation for later educational and social choices.

The government’s goal is that 75 per cent of 12-year-olds reach the provincial standard on province wide testing by 2008.

The early years of a child’s education are the most important. Teachers need to be able to recognize children’s special strengths and weaknesses at the earliest age possible. Students will now benefit from the Government’s actions on:

Reducing class sizes for all primary grades (JK to Grade 3) to achieve a real cap of 20 students per class in 2007-08 – benefiting approximately 565,000 students across the province.
Supporting teachers, principals and supervisory officers through the Literacy/Numeracy Secretariat.
Providing training and resources to teachers and education workers.
Funding innovative programs and encouraging the sharing of best practices.

Healthy Schools Plan:

To reach their full potential, students need good food, daily physical activity and a healthy environment that supports learning and growth.

The Ministry of Education is committed to helping Ontario's students do their best in school. The Healthy Schools plan will make Ontario schools great places to learn through new initiatives including daily physical activity during classroom hours, the return of specialist physical education teachers, the removal of junk food from vending machines and the opening up of our schools for community use after hours.

Safe Schools Action Plan:

Every student has the right to feel safe and be safe in school and on school grounds. That’s why school safety is a top education priority. The ministry has introduced a number of initiatives as part of its Safe Schools Action Plan to make Ontario’s schools safer:

A Safe Welcome Program is helping staff better monitor school visitors and limit their points of access into the school. More than 800 elementary schools across the province have received funding for security access devices where the central entrance can not be seen from the main office, to help office staff monitor who is entering schools and complement other existing safety measures.
More than 3400 safety audits have been conducted to help schools and communities assess both the physical safety and the social climate of their schools.
A Safe Schools Implementation Co-ordinator has been appointed to help schools and boards share best practices to provide a centralized service for school boards through ongoing support, resources, and expertise on bullying prevention and intervention strategies.
The ministry has also implemented a comprehensive bullying prevention strategy. The government is investing funding over the next three years to reduce incidents and fundamentally change attitudes toward the phenomenon of bullying.

The Ontario government is providing schools with the tools, policies and funding needed to make them safer, better places to learn.

Government Key Priorities and Strategies

Success for Students

The Ministry of Education seeks to establish and maintain a high quality and sustainable publicly funded education system. The ministry strives to develop relationships with the education sector and the public that are more interactive, more mutually influential and that mobilize people’s commitment and collective ingenuity to address problems at a deeper level than ever before with correspondingly greater results.

Strong People, Strong Economy

The Government of Ontario is committed to strengthening Ontario through strengthening its people. Publicly funded education is considered the most important investment that can be made for the future of Ontario. Strong public schools are the foundation for a strong economy and a cohesive society. This is being accomplished by many new initiatives including the creation of more learning opportunities for students to customize their education to their own skills and interests. This will help increase the graduation rate and help more Ontario youth contribute now and in the future to the prosperity of the province.

Better Health

The Ministry of Education to doing more to help children stay healthy through new initiatives including daily physical activity during classroom hours, the return of specialist physical education teachers, the removal of junk food from vending machines and the opening up of our schools for community use after-hours.

Performance Measures:

Higher Literacy and Math Achievement

Increase the percentage of Grade 6 students performing at or above the provincial standard to 75 per cent by 2008, as measured by Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO).
Improve the performance of those schools where two-thirds or more of the students do not meet the provincial standard in Grade 3 reading tests.

Higher Graduation Rates

Increase the number of students who graduate from high school to 85 per cent by 2010.

Public Confidence in Public Education

Increase in percentage of students enrolled in publicly funded schools.

Financial Information

Table 1: Ministry Planned Expenditures 2006/07
	Ministry Planned Expenditures ($M) 2006/07
Operating	$12,041,474,238*
Capital	$6,400,000

* Includes Statutory Appropriations

Table 2: Ministry Planned Expenditures by Program Name 2006/07
Program Name	Ministry Planned Expenditures ($M)
Ministry Administration Program	$24,260,900
Elementary and Secondary Education Program - Operating	$11,609,149,400
Elementary and Secondary Education Program – Capital	$6,400,000
Community Services I&IT Cluster Program	$1,000
Statutory Appropriations	$408,062,938

Appendix I

Published Results-Based Plan 2005/06 And Annual Report 2004/05

2005/06 Published Results-based Plan

To achieve these goals the Ministry of Education will focus activities on:

Identifying and supporting effective teaching, learning and assessment practices
Identifying and supporting effective gap-reducing practices
Engaging students, families and communities in building a supportive learning environment
Increasing system effectiveness, efficiency, transparency and responsiveness

The Government of Ontario is committed to strengthening Ontario through strengthening its people. Public education is considered the most important investment that can be made for the future of Ontario. Strong public schools are the foundation for a strong economy and a cohesive society.

Strategies that assist in the achievement of these goals are as follows:

Capping class sizes in early grades, professional development on literacy and numeracy, investing $90M in 1,300 schools and hiring 1,100 new teachers.
Providing specialized resources and supports for teachers, producing teacher guides on methods of instruction in reading and math, and distributing them to over 30,000 JK to Grade 3 classroom teachers.
Funding 104 “Lighthouse” projects to encourage students to stay in school.
Flowing $50 million to school boards to support student success programs in each school board.
Extending the Ontario Scholar Program to include workplace and college bound students
Increasing investment in school-college-work initiative to promote college education among at-risk high school students.
Reviewing and consulting the ESL curriculum to allow for the expansion of English-as-a-Second-Language supports.
Supporting turnaround teams to assist 100 struggling schools.
Increasing support for special education and establishing an expert panel on differentiated teaching of students with special needs as well as increasing funding support to school boards to help high risk English as a second language students and special education students succeed.
Revising applied math curriculum (grades 9-10).

Ministry Planned Expenditures 2005/06
	Ministry Planned Expenditures ($M) 2005/06
Operating	11,565,102,846*
Capital	6,065,000

* Includes Statutory Appropriations

Ministry Planned Expenditures by Program Name 2005/06
Program Name	Ministry Planned Expenditures ($M)
Ministry Administration	23,502,500
Elementary and Secondary Education – Operating	11,251,551,100
Elementary and Secondary Education – Capital	6,065,000
Community Services I&IT Cluster	1,000
Statutory Appropriations	290,048,246

2004/05 Annual Report

The Ministry of Education’s 2004/05 key achievements included:

Assistance for improved literacy and numeracy — including smaller class sizes in 1,300 schools, successful summer teaching development sessions, lead teacher training for thousands of teachers and additional resources paving the way for a Literacy Numeracy Secretariat.
New supports for struggling students in secondary schools through an expanded Student Success program and curriculum changes.
$1.1 billion in new resources allocated to improve the learning environment in schools, despite serious fiscal pressures.
Recognition of distinct rural and urban needs of students within the funding formula.
Expansion of English-as-a-Second-Language support.
A new, healthy schools outlook with restrictions on junk food in elementary schools, and revitalized roles for schools as hubs for community activity through the "Community Use of Schools" initiative.
The establishment of an over $2 billion Good Places to Learn infrastructure fund to repair crumbling schools.
Enhanced respect for teachers through the cancellation of the divisive Professional Learning Program, as well as new proposals to revitalize the Ontario College of Teachers and improve development programs for all teachers.
Greater respect for local trustees through restoring control of supervised boards of education to their elected representatives.
An innovative Education Partnership Table for collaborative decision-making by sector leadership about education policy.
An email-based Ontario-Provincial Education Network (OPEN) to better involve parents, teachers and students alike.
A new Safe Schools Action Team to implement the government's plan to make schools safer, including safety audits of schools, funding for access devices, an anti-bullying hotline and bullying prevention programs in every school.