For many parents and educators, Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) test results offer a gauge of where students are with their studies. But the Ford government has been keeping those results under wraps, and some say that doesn’t ‘add up.’
EQAO is an arms-length agency of the Ontario government which tests students annually in Grades 3 to 6 in reading, math, and writing. Grade 9 and 10 students also take a literacy test. The results are usually made public in late September or early October. This year, however, the Ford government says it’s doing its own math and digging through the data to better understand it.
“We’re going to dig into the scores, because we feel that these scores need to be a lot higher, they need to focus on the areas that are jobs of the future, and that’s STEM, science, technology, engineering and math,” said Premier Ford.
Education Minister Paul Calandra blamed himself for wanting to take a closer look first, but said that the information was on its way.
“Soon we’ll be releasing the EQAO results, so there’s a lot more that has to happen in education to put it all back on the right path,” Calandra said earlier this week.
The lack of transparency to date is not sitting well with some. Critics argue that the delay allows the Minister to offer his own analysis before others get the opportunity, to the government’s advantage.
“You know, they’ve claimed that their funding cuts aren’t having an impact on schools. If the test scores are not great, then that destroys their narrative that their funding is adequate and that the changes that they’ve made to the curriculum are all without problem,” said Ontario NDP Education Critic Chandra Pasma.
Elementary teachers, meanwhile, would rather do away with standardized testing altogether and suggest using the province’s “deep dive” to determine it’s not worth having school kids under the microscope.
“EQAO just doesn’t give us the breadth and depth of information we need in order to help our students. Our educators are best at assessing students’ learning and then adapting their teaching style to meet the needs of the students,” said Shirley Bell, vice-president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario.
The test results would normally help school boards determine the next course of action, but that may no longer be the case with the province taking over some of those boards, meaning any answers will have to come from the government itself.
