Is Ontario's EQAO math test a fair final exam? A look at the pluses and minuses of the 'dynamic' online test

It also means teachers won’t have the flexibility to create final exams, and teens can’t show their work so educators can see if they actually grasp the material, union leaders warn.

“One of the most consequential changes (was) toward (a test) increasingly characterized by adaptive algorithms, automated scoring, digital dashboards, and externalized scoring processes,” said René Jansen in de Wal, president of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association.

“While this retooling has been touted as ‘modernization,’ it seems to be taking a step backward when it comes to supporting student learning,” he added. “A mark or score received on a standardized test does not tell a student where they went wrong on an incorrect answer or provide needed information to a teacher on where additional focus may be required.” 

The Grade 9 test, created and administered by the Education Quality and Accountability Office, or EQAO, is one where more than 40 per cent of students already don’t meet the provincial standard, which is a Level 3 or a B.

Starting this fall, it will be worth 20 per cent of a teen’s final mark in Grade 9 math, though students won’t fail if they don’t reach Level 3, as part of the government’s new rules bringing in mandatory exams in most high school classes. 

About five years ago, the EQAO began using “multi-stage computer adaptive testing” which adjust “to a student’s level of proficiency according to the student’s achievement on a set of items” starting with a “medium difficulty overall, to gauge students’ level of proficiency,” it says on its website.

”… Depending on their achievement, students are next presented with one of three modules in Stage 2, which vary in overall difficulty … As a result, students taking an msCAT (multi-stage computer adaptive testing) receive different modules and complete different overall versions of the test. Although students may receive different items, modules are carefully constructed to meet specific statistical and content requirements.”

The government says the assessment can identify areas where students need help, and while it does involve different questions based on the test-taker’s abilities, final results factor that into a common scale. 

“As we prepare Ontario students for the jobs of tomorrow, our government is bringing a balanced approach to ensure students are assessed fairly and consistently across the province while supporting higher standards and improved student achievement,” said Emma Testani, senior communications adviser and press secretary to Education Minister Paul Calandra.

She said “a student’s final Grade 9 mathematics mark will continue to reflect both classroom achievement and performance on the EQAO assessment. Classroom learning will account for 65 per cent of the final grade, with an additional 15 per cent based on classroom attendance and participation, while the EQAO assessment will serve as the final written exam and account for 20 per cent. Teacher professional judgment will continue to play an important role in student assessment.”

Christopher DeLuca, an education professor at Queen’s University, said the EQAO test “uses only fixed-response questions, like multiple choice, drag and drop, and select all that apply. This test format reduces our ability to see and assess students’ thinking and work.”

That means “students aren’t getting part marks. In contrast, when a teacher constructs their final examination, they can ask students to show their work. While a student might not arrive at the correct final answer on a math question, they may have some sound logic in their answer that is worth considering in assessing their learning,” added DeLuca, director of Queen’s Assessment and Evaluation Group. 

For John Bernans, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation local in the Thames Valley public board and a math teacher, the EQAO test currently makes up about 15 per cent of a student’s final grade, and another 15 per cent is a course exam or final project.

“The EQAO test is a good way to determine what portion of our students achieve the provincial standard,” he said. “It is a very poor assessment of how well individual students have absorbed the curriculum in Grade 9 math.”

The test, he added, “is a dynamic electronic test where questions get easier if students do poorly and they get harder when students do better. Students can’t fail it — nor can they ace it.”

For Molade Osibodu, a professor of math education at York, Grade 9 is a tough transition year for students and “then to have this boogeyman of this external final exam that wasn’t even set by their teachers in their school — I just don’t think it really creates the environment for students to feel that they can, in fact, be successful.”

Such testing “tends to favour richer kids,” Osibodu added. “It tends to favour students in well-resourced schools … (and) there’s something about testing that brings a different layer of stress or anxiety, and there are certain learners whose families are well-resourced to provide the kind of support where they get to do a lot more practice” and preparation.