Tomorrow will mark the last direct experience that my children will have with standardized testing in Ontario. My youngest will write the Gr. 10 Literacy test. As many of the readers of my blog know, I have always questioned standardized testing in schools, and specifically, Ontario’s EQAO testing. Our family also withdrew our two children from the EQAO testing in both Grades 3 and 6. At the high school level, we have tolerated their expected participation in the Gr. 9 Math EQAO assessment and the Gr. 10 Literacy test (OSSLT). A pass on the OSSLT is required for graduation. I have recently posted about some concerns about the Gr. 9 math assessment here.
As a parent, I have voiced and demonstrated my position as much as possible, which has led me to many great conversations with other individuals. I can understand the various reasons why we may not hear teacher voices more regarding these tests. When we do, public reaction and response often suggests that any resistance means they don’t want to be evaluated. I responded to such in a letter to the media in the past and have guest blogged about it on Chris Wejr’s (@MrWejr) blog here.
I often count on Joe Bower (@joe_bower), a teacher in Alberta, to keep me up to date on posts and research about standardized testing on his blog. I have also been encouraged lately by coming across a few blog posts by Ontario teachers. I commend them for their honesty and candor. I view their willingness to express their thoughts, opinions, and frustrations as an expression of concern about the learning of their students, and all students. I think many of us are seeking alternatives and solutions regarding the current focus and spending on EQAO testing in Ontario.
With their permission, I am pleased to share and link their blog posts below:
Teaching to the Test by Jamie Reaburn Weir @msjweir
Let’s Scrap EQAO by Andrew Campbell @acampbell99
You Can’t Cancel the Redundancy by Timothy King @tk1ng
If there are teachers who have shared about how the EQAO standardized testing has been beneficial to supporting their students and their instruction, please let me know and I will add to the list here.
Adding a principal’s reflection related to this post as well:
Recovering from EQAO by Donna Fry @fryed
And this recent post of Andrew Campbell’s that features his related posts to date, as well as more reflections and experiences from both teachers and parents in the comments:
Also, The Good and the Bad from Aviva Dunsiger (@avivaloca) as she reflects about how kids with special needs in her class are affected while writing of the test, and thus the outcomes.
Update – April/2014: Adding another post by Jamie Reaburn Weir with her reflection and questions about the Ontario Gr. 10 Literacy Test: #osslt
Mar 28, 2012 @ 20:55:52
Sheila,
Thanks for your ongoing commitment to expressing your perspective as a parent and someone who cares deeply about this and other issues related to the quality of schools!
I appreciate you bringing together these voices in one place…I look forward to exploring.
Mar 28, 2012 @ 23:34:31
Thank you for this post Sheila. This needs much discussion and the majority of parents are not very enlightened about EQAO. Will be sharing this with my parent community on Facebook. Thanks for the other links too. Keep at it – we appreciate your work!
Mar 28, 2012 @ 23:41:16
Thanks, Stephen and Hazel, for such kind words! Thanks for visiting the links and sharing!
Recovering from EQAO « Learning About Learning
Mar 30, 2012 @ 05:26:38
Apr 02, 2012 @ 11:09:27
It’s so refreshing to hear about parents who ‘buck the system’ by withdrawing their children from the EQAO assessments. I attended the EQAO Elementary Learning Forum last Friday and barely survived the day – my sanity remained intact only be tweeting about the poison that EQAO is and always has been.
Some of the statements made by EQAO still astound me:
“What we don’t want is random acts of improvement.”
“Using EQAO data to improve student learning….”
“Data informs us for school improvement planning.”
It boggles my mind how much money is spent on one 6-hour assessment; a snapshot-in-time. They report $34 million, but I don’t think that includes the costs that are downloaded to boards.
What I find most amazing, is how they can actually believe that the data can inform improvement. They still don’t realize that many Principals pressure Grade 3 and 6 teachers to raise the scores so that their school will have a better ranking.
If it were up to me and every Grade 3 and 6 student had to write these tests, I would ensure that there was nothing done in classrooms leading up to the test days, other than informing parents that the tests would be written on these dates. There would be no loss of instructional time to prepare the students for taking the tests. Even better, if I were in control of this particular monster, I would just change it to random sample testing.
Dec 01, 2012 @ 16:08:59
Thanks for your comment Cyndie… I forgot to respond to yours. I like your proposal in your last paragraph… I thought it was supposed to be that way at first….not so anymore, eh.
Apr 06, 2012 @ 05:02:05
Feb 26, 2013 @ 06:03:25
Opting Out of EQAO | Looking Up
Jan 26, 2014 @ 12:55:12
Jan 01, 2015 @ 22:50:15