The future of province-wide standardized testing will be determined in consultation with parents, teachers and others in the system, says Ontario’s education minister in response to a report that recommends changes to the contentious literacy and numeracy evaluations given to students in four grades.The report, released online Tuesday, says that over the next several years, the government should “phase out” tests in Grade 3, as well as in Grade 9 math, “substantially modernize” Grade 6 assessments, and end but then reform the mandatory Grade 10 literacy test. It even suggests that in transforming testing by the Education Quality and Accountability Office, or EQAO, that the government consider “re-naming and re-launching the Crown agency” which has been a source of much frustration among teacher unions. “The province will work with education sector partners to move forward on the recommendations for strengthening classroom assessment and reporting,” said Education Minister Indira Naidoo-Harris in a written statement. She also said more feedback is needed from Indigenous communities. Charles Pascal, a former deputy education minister and former chair of the EQAO, said the report “attempts to appease too many constituents.”Read more: Opinion | Sachin Maharaj: Why we should end EQAO testingPeel Board wants province to cancel EQAO tests this year‘Culture of silence’ in education a roadblock to reporting colleaguesHe prefers either modernizing EQAO or, as he recommended years ago, a random sampling approach that “selects schools according to key characteristics and randomly chooses kids within those schools who are told — along with parents — that they are going to act as ‘consultants’ to see how the Ontario curriculum is doing by filling out ‘some forms,’” he said.“This would best deal with the report’s interest in an annual snapsh ...
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