The example of Michaela Community School in the U.K. demonstrates the importance of traditional approaches to instruction and discipline, values generally supported by most Canadian parents Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

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“Hooray!!” That was the one-word tweet from Katharine Birbalsingh, “Britain’s strictest headmistress,” as students at the Michaela Community School, located in the shadow of London’s Wembley Stadium, received their “A-levels” — exams that would determine which university they went to. Significantly more students at her school (about 70 per cent) achieved top grades (A or A*) compared with the national average (28.5 per cent). A remarkable feat for a government-funded school with a sizeable portion of its students coming from financially disadvantaged backgrounds.

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The Michaela School was controversial when it launched, but its story has been one of unqualified success. Could the Michaela model hold lessons for education reform in Canada?

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Canadian students continue to fare better than those in the average developed country, but performance has been declining. According to newly-released OECD test results, the slide in student scores on key subjects (particularly reading and math) is so bad that today’s 15-year-olds are testing at the level of 14-year-olds in 2006.

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Although the pandemic and social media affected results around the world, Canada’s negative trend spans decades. It’s no coincidence that it coincides with the K-12 system shifting away from traditional teaching approaches. For example, instead of “structured literacy” with an emphasis on sounding out words (phonics), kids were increasingly taught to use cues and clues to guess words. Math moved away from times-tables and rote memorization to “discovery math,” where kids had to invent their own approaches to problem-solving. A decline in literacy and math skills was inevitable. To make matters worse, an increasingly lax approach to discipline led to an “epidemic” of school violence.

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Against the backdrop of similar challenges in the U.K., Headmistress Birbalsingh understood that this approach didn’t work, and founded the Michaela Community School in 2014 following a raft of reforms that expanded school choice. Established as a free-school academy, Michaela is funded by the government but operates as a non-profit. It can determine its own curriculum and teaching methods, set different hours for teaching and exercise some control over its budget. Michaela took advantage of these freedoms to focus on traditional instruction (the teacher is there to teach), strict discipline (detention if you’re late or unruly) and longer school days (extra-curricular activities take place after school hours, not during).

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The result? A school for ordinary and even disadvantaged kids with grades rivalling those at England’s most famous private school, Eton.

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Canadian parents may not be familiar with the Michaela model, but polling data indicates they generally support its approach. A recent survey found over half of respondents want schools to return to traditional teaching methods (only about one in four support the new methods), while over 70 per cent favour a return to traditional responses to student misconduct (unruly behaviour results in suspension, marks are deducted for late assignments, etc.). In essence, parents want schools to get back to basics.