Technology gets an F on Grade 10 literacy test
EQAO’s online trial cancelled for tens of thousands of students due to tech glitches
It was 8:30 a.m. on Thursday when 15-year-old Shawn Flumerfelt logged on to a classroom computer at his Toronto high school to begin the provincial Grade 10 literacy test.
The first sign of trouble appeared right away — a slowly rotating circle on his screen indicating patience would be required while the program loaded. Once he finally began, it took ages to get from one question to the next after hitting the prompt. Other times a warning flashed that he’d been disconnected and needed to reconnect.
Across Ontario, tens of thousands of other students were groaning as they experienced the same thing.
Then almost three hours after Shawn began — with only four of the 55 questions left to complete — a message informed him “your test has been paused.”
That was followed by an announcement that the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO), which administers standardized tests, had cancelled the assessment across the province “due to widespread technical issues,” rendering the morning’s work invalid.
“It was definitely frustrating,” says Shawn, a student at Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute, who, like everyone else attempting the assessment, will have to do it again next spring.
“I was sitting beside someone who finished the whole test and he was very annoyed.”
While some students lost their work, others who had been scheduled for testing in the afternoon never even got started.
The mandatory 150-minute literacy test, traditionally using pen and paper and completed in two 75-minute segments, usually takes place in the spring. But Thursday’s assessment was a pilot option for up to 190,000 students at the 900 secondary schools invited to test the new online version and determine whether it was ready to be rolled out.
Not long after students started, it became clear it wasn’t.
At the Peel District School Board, where all high schools participated, most students didn’t even manage to log on, said superintendent Poleen Grewal.
A statement posted on the EQAO website acknowledged the work of schools in preparing for the trial and invited feedback.
“We are disappointed at the outcome of this trial and sincerely apologize for this development,” it said.
Had the glitches not occurred, students who completed the test successfully wouldn’t have been required to take it again, while others would have a second chance in the spring.
EQAO director Richard Jones said the failure was “a very big surprise” after months of successful testing that used mock-ups of more than 250,000 people logging on simultaneously. He said the source of the problem has still not been determined but that he’s confident the problems will be rectified by spring.
The online literacy test offered next spring will also include a backup version on paper, which students can choose instead, he said. With files from Kristin Rushowy