Ontario should keep standardized tests in its schools

Almost nobody likes writing tests, but almost everybody will admit they’re necessary.

Whether it’s to prove you can drive a car, wire a house, deliver a baby or get a degree to hang on your wall, you have to pass some kind of test in this world.

But, while people usually accept the need for such examinations, one set of tests has consistently rankled with a large part of the population of Ontario since they were introduced more than two decades ago.

These are the standardized tests administered every year to students in Grades 3, 6, 9 and 10 across the province under the auspices of Ontario’s Education, Quality and Accountability Office.

Teachers, as a group, loathe these tests. In their eyes, they’re a waste of time and money, have little value for the students, tell the public next to nothing and should be scrapped.

Now those critics will be cheering a new report that urges a radical overhaul of these controversial assessments.

The report, led by Carol Campbell of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, recommends phasing out all the testing for Grade 3 students — in reading, writing and math — along with the Grade 9 math test.

Also on the chopping block would be the Grade 10 literacy test students need to pass to get a high-school diploma. Grade 6 testing would be revamped, too.

Teachers may look at the report and say “We told you so.”

The Ontario government should look at the report and do nothing. Implementing it wouldn’t kill the tests. But it would gut them to the point of rendering them useless.

Ontarians are approaching a provincial election on June 7. Education, as always, will be a hot issue. Standardized tests should not become a bargaining chip used by politicians to win votes from the province’s 124,000 teachers.

Beyond the politics, however, the tests should continue because they’re improving the province’s education system. That’s what’s really being tested here.

With two million students attending schools in more than 70 Ontario boards spread across a geographical space the size of most of Europe, it’s hard for parents, the public and government to understand what’s going on.

What’s working? What’s not? What can the successful boards teach the underperformers?

That’s where the standardized tests come in. They measure how students are learning the curriculum at critical times in their educational lives.

They show how individual schools and boards are performing. And, best of all, they keep the system accountable.

Far from being used to blame or punish anyone, the standardized tests have resulted in more technical assistance and support for low-performing schools. The tests have helped many boards improve students’ reading skills and address the need for better math instruction. And, currently, the Grade 3 tests are helping Ontario evaluate the success of all-day kindergarten.

Far from being an expensive diversion from more important studies, standardized tests take up six hours of the students’ time once every three years or so and cost $52 for each student tested.

They may not be the ultimate judge and arbiter of Ontario’s education system.

They are, however, one useful tool in the tool box we need to keep the system in prime working order.

Let’s not throw away this tool. Let’s not flub this test.