The Ontario Court of Appeal has overturned a lower court ruling that said the province’s Math Proficiency Test (MPT) for teacher candidates hindered “racialized candidates” from getting jobs.
The original lawsuit was brought by the Ontario Teacher Candidates’ Council against the Ontario Ministry of Education, saying “racialized candidates” did not do as well as other candidates on the test, which is required for teacher certification.
Appeal Court Judges David Doherty, Ian Nordheimer, and Patrick Monahan said the Dec. 17, 2021 division court decision was made in error with incomplete information.
“The Divisional Court found that the MPT had a disproportionate adverse impact on entry to the teaching profession for racialized teacher candidates,” the Nov. 28 appeals court decision said.
However, the appeal court noted that more detailed information on the testing demonstrated that while some candidates did not pass on the first attempt, they did so on subsequent testing.
“The December 2021 Data discloses that of the 8,350 candidates who attempted the MPT one or more times during 2021, 95 percent were successful, including 93 percent of candidates from racialized groups,” the court decision said.
“The appellants argue, moreover, that there is no evidence to show that the relatively modest differences in success rates on the MPT as of December 2021 will impact the diversity of the teaching profession in Ontario,” the judges said.
“The appellants maintain that it is not discriminatory to require highly educated professionals to demonstrate that they have the minimal competence in math required to educate Ontario elementary school students,” they added.
It was a position echoed by Ontario’s Minister of Education Stephen Lecce in a social media post celebrating the decision.
“Ontario’s grade nine math standard was introduced to assure parents that those responsible for educating students have the fundamental math skills they need to help students graduate,” Mr. Lecce said.
“Our message to Ontario parents is clear: we will stand up for better outcomes for students and invest in math and financial literacy education.”
The Epoch Times reached out to the Ontario Teacher Candidates’ Council but did not immediately hear back.
According to court documents, the organization argued that the MPT was “ unlikely to improve student performance but will disproportionately exclude candidates from racialized groups by barring them from entering the teaching profession.”
While the council acknowledged the information that showed candidates who take the test multiple times is comparable to that of non-racialized candidates, it argues “racialized candidates” have lower success rates on first attempts of the MPT, which could cause a delay in their entering the procession, “causing them to lose out on employment opportunities even if they ultimately succeed in passing the MPT.”
However, the court noted that there was no evidence to support this claim.
“The respondents have not shown that any of the candidates who wrote the MPT in 2021 multiple times were delayed in entering the profession, much less that any of them lost out on job opportunities as a result,” the judges wrote.
“The uncontradicted expert evidence is that the MPT is designed to test teacher candidates’ knowledge of mathematical ideas that any individual who has completed a high school level education could reasonably be expected to understand.”
