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Legislation: HIGH STAKES TESTING IN ONTARIO

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On the Legislative Front Legislation: HIGH STAKES TESTING IN ONTARIO BACKGROUND Educational Reform since 1996: Establishment of College of Teachers Establishment of Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) to administer provincial testing New curriculum for all grades Elimination of Grade 13 Re-introduction of streaming of secondary students Safe Schools legislation (zero tolerance) Teacher testing for new teachers Re-licensing requirements for practicing teachers New funding formula IEP standards Early literacy and numeracy initiative for K to Grade 3 Province-wide testing in Grades 3, 6, and 9 Grade 10 literacy test as graduation requirement And more…… PROVINCE-WIDE TESTING FOR GRADES 3,6 AND 9 Students in these grades are tested in May of each school year. Tests are used to measure the performance of schools and not individual students Results are compared from year to year to measure progress in teaching and learning The good news: Funding for individual schools is not impacted by test scores Compensation for teachers is not tied to school performance so that the impact on high needs schools is not compounded The bad news: Teaching to the test Special education students are exempted in high numbers Poor scores do not necessarily result in increased and targeted instruction GRADE 10 LITERACY TEST Policy development began in 1999 Policy was introduced to address concerns regarding low literacy levels of students graduating from high school and entering post-secondary education or employment Is a requirement for receiving a high school diploma Early implementation problems such as test being leaked, inconsistent access to accommodations in IEPs for special education students (the Ontario Human Rights Code provides entitlement to such accommodations where disability is documented), teachers not sure how to prepare students for the test High numbers of early failures resulted in discussion of options such as an alternative diploma, which was rejected by many including LDAO who lobbied against it · It is suspected that poor early performance is a result of current students not having fill benefit of the new curriculum. Scores can be expected to improve as the new curriculum permeates the system In March 2003 a Grade 12 literacy credit course was introduced for students who failed to pass the Grad 10 test after two attempts GRADE 10 LITERACY TEST RESULTS FEBRUARY 2002 In February 2002, a total of 141,061 students took the test Of these, 69% passed both reading and writing Results by gender saw 69% of females and 64% of males passing. Of the total taking test, 48% were female, 50% male and 2% unspecified. Of students in ESL programming, only 17% passed Of students in special needs (excluding gifted), 34% passed the test and 10% deferred taking the test as opposed to 4% of the general population who deferred Information on student levels was available for only 98,500 students. Data on more than 40,000 students is unavailable. Of available data, 83% of advanced students passed and only 38% of applied students passed. For students in locally developed courses only 7% passed It is noteworthy that students in applied courses are assumed to be appropriate for the college-bound stream but 62% of them did not pass the test Also noteworthy is the fact that in general, students did better on the writing test than the reading Presented to NASP 2003 Conference by Carol Yaworski for LDA of Ontario
LDAO. phone: (416) 929-4311 365 Bloor Street East fax: (416) 929-3908 Box 39, Suite 1004 Website: www.ldao.ca Toronto, Ontario M4W 3L4