TORONTO - Ontario's education minister says the province is hiring nearly 1,000 specialized math and literacy educators.
Stephen Lecce says more than $71 million will go toward supporting about 300 teachers, doubling the number of math coaches, and introducing one math lead per school board to direct curriculum implementation and training.
He says the government will also send so-called math action teams - made up of trained math educators - to school boards to recommend ways to improve student math performance.
Lecce says the plan will focus on the lowest-achieving 20 per cent of schools, according to standardized testing data from the Education Quality and Accountability Office.
Karen Littlewood, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, says it's a start, but focusing only on 20 per cent of schools will leave a lot of kids out.
Lecce also says $109 million will go toward funding 700 educators to support literacy development, as well as setting up early reading screening tools for students from senior kindergarten to Grade 2.