Why public policy

Most of my teaching has been one-on-one. The work is simple: sit down with a student and find exactly where they got lost.

Then I did my practicum in a grade 11 math class. A lot of the students didn't know what an exponent was or how to use a calculator to take a log. I spent one entire class working with a single student, and we made good progress. Then I looked up and realized there were 29 other students I hadn't helped at all. When I raised it, I was told that some students will naturally fall through the cracks. That really didn't sit well with me.

I don't think every student is going to get a 95, and I don't think they need to. But every student should get a real shot at it, and anyone in grade 11 math should know what an exponent is.

The school was short on basic supplies, and the expectation was that most students wouldn't go on to post-secondary. That was the opposite of what I was used to. Some students were also carrying a lot from outside school, and it wasn't always visible from the front of the room. It made me think about how many kids are struggling and never get noticed, because their teachers don't have the time or the training to catch it.

Most of that is decided before a teacher ever walks into the room: in how teachers are trained, and in how money and support get divided between schools. So I left the teaching program, and I'm going after a Master of Public Policy instead.

My degree is in math, with minors in sociology and education, and I care a lot about evidence. I think almost any claim is fair game as long as you can back it up and other people can push back on it. I want to bring that to education and figure out which programs actually help the students falling through the cracks, and which ones just sound good.