Peel wants province to cancel EQAO tests

Board’s motion comes in wake of Ontario plan to review its curriculum and methods of assessment

Trustees at Peel District School Board are asking the Ministry of Education to suspend EQAO tests for all students this year in the wake of its plans to review curriculum and how pupils are assessed.

In a motion approved at a board meeting Tuesday night, the trustees also urged other school boards throughout the province and the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association to support its request.

Given the province-wide review, the board’s motion to cancel EQAO tests in math, reading and writing for students in Grades 3, 6 and 9 this year “makes perfect sense,” says Peel chairperson Janet McDougald.

Ontario’s second-largest school board has become increasingly worried that current tests administered by the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) don’t accurately reflect what its students are learning in the classroom, McDougald said in an interview Wednesday.

The trustees’ move comes a month after Ontario announced an “education refresh” that will include revamping curriculum and report cards as well as rethinking standardized testing.

Although Education Minister Mitzie Hunter indicated in a statement that the tests will proceed as planned, the Peel motion has already reignited the debate about the explosive topic of standardized testing.

Unions representing elementary and high school teachers, who want the current system of large-scale testing eliminated, applauded the Peel request, while other educators stressed that while no test instrument is perfect, the EQAO is an important measure of what skills students are mastering.

“During this review, it’s important that parents are still receiving information about how their child is doing at school,” Hunter said in a statement. “That’s why EQAO will continue to provide relevant information to better support student achievement and well-being.”

The Ontario Public School Boards’ Association did not respond directly to the Peel trustees’ request for support because it needs more information, said president Laurie French.

“However, the reality is that EQAO has been in place for 20 years and a comprehensive review is overdue,” she said in a statement.

McDougald said the Peel board has long been concerned about “a disconnect” between student report cards and EQAO scores, particularly in math, and met with EQAO staff earlier this year to try to get to the bottom of it.

Although a strategy to improve literacy results led to significant improvement, three years of intensive focus on math has not improved scores on the provincial test, she said. “We do not believe the test is capturing what the children are learning.”

McDougald said putting the tests on hold is reasonable because of the weight put on the results by everyone from parents to real estate agents using them to attract buyers.