Ontario needs bold change to reverse a troubling slide in math skills — from a mandatory high school numeracy test like the one for Grade 10 literacy, to a math test for would-be elementary teachers, warns a report to be brainstormed Tuesday by a panel of prominent educators.

The proposed blueprint for overhauling math education suggests not letting children use calculators until at least Grade 3 and making high school students take math in all four years, not just three. It was co-authored by York University Professor Emeritus Graham Orpwood, who has advised Ottawa and Queen’s Park on math and science and led groundbreaking research that shows one in three community college math students — a staggering 12,000 a year — fail because they lack often such basic elementary school skills as fractions, ratios and decimals.

While Orpwood opposes going back to the “old drill-and-kill” way of teaching such skills, he says it’s time the Ontario curriculum states clearly that elementary students should master basic math facts like multiplication tables, so no one doubts their importance.

“It’s a symbolic move; we don’t want students to go back to a time where you followed a bunch of (math) rules and didn’t have a clue why,” he said. “But certain skills are needed for understanding math, just like in language, you need to be able to spell.”

The teaching of math is a political lightning rod. Some 3,500 people have signed a petition calling on Queen’s Park to add more structure to math education to ensure “a solid foundation in arithmetic and problem-solving.”

To sort it all out, the report says Premier Kathleen Wynne should create a Provincial Roundtable on Numeracy to chart a path to a math fix, from lesson plans to conquering teachers’ math phobia. Weak math skills should be treated as just as unacceptable — and fixable — as an inability to read, argues the report called “Closing the Numeracy Gap; an Urgent Issue for Ontario.”

“We’re far too accepting in western countries of people who ‘can’t do math’ — it’s the myth of the ‘math gene’ — and yet we would never accept that some people just can’t read,” said Orpwood, who wrote the report with Sheridan College Calculus Professor Emily Sandford Brown. “We make excuses for each other for not being good at math,” said Orpwood, “but if we treated literacy the same way, it would be a scandal.”

Requiring all Ontario students to pass a mandatory numeracy test to graduate from high school “would signal to everyone that numeracy matters,” he said. “It would raise the profile of numeracy the way nothing else can.”

The report is the topic of a panel discussion Tuesday at the Economic Club of Canada between economist Don Drummond, George Brown College president Anne Sado and former Toronto District School Board director Gerry Connelly.

Orpwood praised Education Minister Liz Sandals for announcing a $60 million “renewed math strategy” April 4 that will ensure every grade school has one to three math-savvy “lead teachers,” partly because four out of five elementary teachers have not taken math since high school.

“Lead teachers are a great idea but they’re not enough. We’re falling behind in math just as math is becoming more and more important in our society. Somebody needs to blow the whistle.”

In high school, the report urges schools de-stream math in Grades 9 and 10 and have everyone take the same course which would allow for review of major concepts from elementary school if needed. In Grades 11 and 12 it suggests organizing courses, not by the type of post-secondary school the student hopes to attend — college or university — but by field of interest; STEM subjects (science, tech, engineering and math), the math-y fields of business, health care, education, social sciences — and math for those headed for the arts and humanities who still need math for everyday life.

Brainstorming changes in teaching math:

Calculating a new approach: Ontario students should wait to use technology and calculators until Grade 3, like other provinces, not Grade 1, where Ontario has first mention of calculators in the curriculum, according to the report “The Numeracy Gap.” “This can lead to a dependence on technology that leaves students unwilling or unable to do simple calculations such as adding and multiplication without the aid of technology.

“The ability to think mathematically and perform simple operations without the use of a calculator sits at the very heart of numeracy,” says the report. “While technology has made routine calculations easier and faster, technology should be introduced to students for use in the classroom only after a firm conceptual understanding of mathematical operations has been developed.”

Math matters to the economy, according to “The Numeracy Gap.” A Stanford University study using OECD data shows that a modest increase in a person’s numeracy scores corresponds with almost 20 per cent higher wages. A Harvard University study estimates that poor mathematics skills in the United States could cost that country’s economy $75 trillion over the next 80 years.

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A British report entitled “The Fear Factor” argues that “mathematics is a social justice issue.” The myth that women are less able than men to succeed at math continues to feed women’s reluctance to enter some of the more heavily math-based fields like engineering. Similar myths contribute to the lower numeracy levels among aboriginal people and members of some ethnic groups.

“People want to pinpoint so-called ‘discovery math’ as the problem, but it’s not,” said Orpwood. “One of the problems is the curriculum is too dense; there’s too much to cover and not enough time for students to make connections between the concepts. A lot of people say it’s a mile wide and an inch deep.”

His report calls for a balance between the newer problem-based way of understanding math and the mastery of math facts like multiplication tables.

Teacher test: In the United Kingdom you can’t go to teachers’ college without taking a math proficiency test, says Orpwood. “And if you fail twice, forget teaching.”

He says “it wouldn’t do any harm here to require a proficiency test for anyone going into teaching elementary students.” Some faculties of education report student teachers in tears on the first day when they realize how much math they have to teach.

What if, Orpwood asks, universities designed undergraduate math courses just for those hoping to be grade school teachers?

Numbers tell a tale of slipping skills:

The math skills of Canadian and Ontario 15-year-olds slipped significantly between 2003 and 2012 on the high-profile “PISA” test (Program for International Student Assessment) run by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD);

Among people in 24 countries aged 16 to 65, an OECD test showed Canadians achieved significantly below average, with over 54 per cent scoring below the level considered appropriate for full participation in a modern technological society. And it’s getting worse; a decade ago only 47 per cent of Canadian adults scored that low;

The number of Ontario Grade 3 students meeting the provincial standard in math on annual province-wide EQAO tests has fallen four percentage points between 2009 and 2013, and among Grade 6 students it has fallen 7 points;