First let me thank you for taking the time and interest to comment, particularly from an authority on the subject.

I do however have some follow up to your comment, again as a matter of healthy discussion. For the sake of simplicity, I’ve italicized portions of your comment and addressed each accordingly…

each student who writes the tests receives a report that describes his or her achievement

I’m assuming the achievement is numerical and is accompanied by a general/stock description at best based on that numerical level. What does that mean to a grade 3 student and how does it help him/her. More importantly, does anyone then take individual results and work thru them with individual children to provide strategies for the children with which to move forward or to re-teach items that obviously were misunderstood?

Schools receive a report that details how each student answered each test question. This can help teachers identify precisely which curriculum areas may need more attention, whether for individual students, classes or the whole school

Although this may be true, I presume the report is shared the following year. So even if the results do in fact provide a snapshot of curriculum areas for concern, it relfects the prior year. If schools work to correct these concerns, then there is an implicit assumption that the upcoming students may have the same curriculum concerns. What is happening with the kids who wrote the prior year test and are now in grade 4 for ex? Even then, if populations are transient, we cannot assume that the grade 4 of this year are the same grade 3′s of last year. Likewise, some school populations are so transient that the new crop of grade 3s may not necessarily be the primary students of that school, and so their prior learning experience may not be reflective of that particular school.

The provincial test results are one source of information that should be considered alongside many others.

Very true from an educator’s perspective but from a parent perspective, EQAO is the ONLY test and given all the media attention and hype, other good assessment tools may not hold as much worth in the eyes of some.

Changes in results are an excellent point of discussion for principals and their school communities, and that is partly how these tests help support accountability.

Agree! However more work needs to be done in including parents and families as part of the community . Positive change can happen when all stakeholders work collaboratively. We need to re-think the responsibility of education as one that belongs to schools, families and community partners (i.e. Public health, Public library etc) in a very collaborative partnership rather than on disconnected and opposing players.

First, it’s important to understand that the provincial tests measure cumulative knowledge and skills, so they absolutely take into account prior years of learning. Second, each student who writes the tests receives a report that describes his or her achievement. In addition, schools receive a report that details how each student answered each test question. This can help teachers identify precisely which curriculum areas may need more attention, whether for individual students, classes or the whole school.

You are correct that literacy and numeracy are not the only measure of quality education. However, since they are the foundation for success in all subjects and in life beyond school, it is certainly important to evaluate student achievement in these core areas. The provincial tests provide the only objective measure of students’ achievement of the reading, writing and mathematics skills in The Ontario Curriculum. The Auditor General of Ontario recently confirmed that EQAO tests are a fair and accurate reflection of curriculum expectations, are consistent in difficulty from year to year and are reliable indicators of student achievement.

EQAO has always advocated for the importance of considering a wide range of achievement information to evaluate a student’s learning. The provincial test results are one source of information that should be considered alongside many others.

Finally, significant changes in the results can stem from a wide range of reasonable factors, from small class sizes (consider that in a class of 20, two students can create a 10% swing in results one way or the other) to changes in the school’s populations to targeted interventions that have been put in place as a result of analyzing previous years’ results. Changes in results are an excellent point of discussion for principals and their school communities, and that is partly how these tests help support accountability.

Not sure what you meant by the comment. Rates did increase as i noted above. Furthermore, we saw a second increase announced just this week by TD Bank. As for BOC, most agree rates will increase but later this year…esp given the Dollar’s continued crusade.