EQAO standardized test results coming next week: Minister

Contents of the article

Standardized testing results for Ontario students will be released next week, Education Minister Paul Calandra said Monday after delaying their release, suggesting changes could occur.

Contents of the article

Results from the Office of Educational Quality and Accountability's math and literacy tests are typically released earlier in the fall for the previous school year, but Calandra said this year he wanted to take a “deep dive” before releasing them.

Contents of the article

Contents of the article

“I'm not going to apologize,” he said, despite criticism from the opposition and teachers' unions for not yet releasing the results.

“I spent a lot of time looking at the results. Ontarians pay a lot of money for this standardized testing, and I heard from a lot of teachers. From April through the summer, I spent a lot of time talking to a lot of teachers about what they were seeing, and I think we owe it to them to take the time to look at it.”

Liberal parliamentary leader John Fraser said there was no reason why Calandra couldn't review the results at the same time as everyone else.

Contents of the article

Contents of the article

“I think the prime minister needs to find a minister who can walk and chew gum, because there was nothing stopping him from sending them to the people who needed them: children, educators, their parents,” Fraser said during question period.

“It takes so much effort and you end up saying, 'Oh, I'm just hanging on to them because I want to look good.'

Kalandra did not specify whether the results for the last academic year were poor. But when asked if he was satisfied the test was a useful tool, Calandra said more information would be available next week.

The provincial government has struggled for years to address low math scores on standardized tests, although results released last year showed low but stable or improving math scores, while reading and writing scores were lower in grades 3 and 6.

Contents of the article

Green Party leader Mike Schreiner said money spent on EQAO testing could be better spent on educational institutions.

“But if we're going to spend money on EQAO, then I think students, teachers, parents and communities deserve to know what the results are,” he said after question period.

“The fact that the government did not release them just shows you again that this government does not want to be held accountable.”

NDP Leader Marit Stiles, whose party previously promised to end EQAO testing if elected, said Monday there is some value in doing so.

“I really believe there is a place there for this kind of research,” she said. “What I don’t like is the politicization of EQAO under the current government.”

When the Tories took office, their first education minister defended the appointment of the unsuccessful Progressive Conservative Party candidate to the permanent position of EQAO board chair at a salary of $140,000 a year, a position that had previously been part-time at $225 a day.

Contents of the article