According to Earl and Graham (1994), for nearly three decades, there was very little standard-ized assessment or testing in Ontario. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s there had been stan-dardized exit examinations from Grade 13 (departmental examinations) in all subjects areas, and these formed the sole basis for entry into university. In the mid 1960s, the results from these examinations were combined with teacher marks for university entry. In the late 1960s, the examinations were discontinued, and teacher marks became the basis for university entry.
This practice has continued ever since.
In the 1970s and 1980s, some school boards chose to administer norm-referenced, standard-ized tests at selected grade levels, but the results were used only as additional information to assist teachers in making decisions about individual student placement or program improve-ment, and the tests were, as a result, “low-stakes.” At the provincial level, there was no testing program at this time. Ontario left student assessment in the hands of educators. Teachers were expected to develop evaluation procedures and examinations that measured the achievement of students in courses and programs based on provincial curriculum guidelines.
By the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was growing evidence that the Ontario public was beginning to lose confidence in the education system: a provincial study by the Ministry of Education (1991) showed that there was considerable diversity across the province in OAC (Grade 13) English examinations; the province’s results on a series of international assessments were a cause for concern; the universities began asking for a return to provincial examinations;
and opinion polls began to show that the majority of the public supported province-wide test-ing.
As a result of growing public concern, the Government of Ontario conducted a Royal Commis-sion on Learning that consulted widely with educators, parents, students and taxpayers. In its report (1994) the Royal Commission called for the establishment of an independent, arm’s-length agency to implement a series of programs to respond to public demands for greater quality and accountability in the education system. Bill 30, the Act to establish the Education Quality and Accountability Office, was given Royal Assent in June, 1996.
Education Quality and Accountability Office (Policy Framework)
The Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) Policy Framework (1996) includes statements about the agency’s mission, values, objectives and activities as follows.
Mission:
“EQAO will assure greater accountability and contribute to the enhancement of the qual-ity of education in Ontario. This will be done through assessments and reviews based on objective, reliable relevant information, and the timely public release of that information along with recommendations for system improvement.”
Values:
“EQAO values:
• the well-being of learners above all other interests,
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• only that information which has the potential to bring about constructive
• change and improvement,
• the dedication and expertise of Ontario’s educators and will work to
• involve them in all of its activities, and
• the delivery of its programs and services with equivalent quality in
• both English and French.”
Objectives:
“EQAO:
• provides a broad range of information about quality to support
• informed judgement and decision-making,
• develops student assessment instruments and practices that contribute to
• enhanced teaching and learning,
• models positive learning practices within its own organization,
• sets its horizons globally, bringing high standards & superior
• practices to all its activities, and
• seeks markets for its products, services and expertise.”
Activities:
“EQAO:
• designs and implements a comprehensive program of student assessment
• within government-established parameters,
• advises the Minister of Education and Training on assessment policy,
• develops and implements a provincial performance indicators program,
• leads Ontario’s participation in national and international assessment and
• indicators work,
• promotes research in best practices in assessment and accountability,
• reports to the Minister, the public and the education community on
• system quality issues and recommends improvements, and
• conducts quality reviews in cooperation with school boards.”
Education Quality and Accountability Office (Project Summaries)
The activities of EQAO are strategic in that they reflect the need for student achievement and planning information that can be used for improvement, accountability and credentialing pur-poses.
Grades 3 and 6 Assessments of Reading, Writing and Mathematics:
The Grade 3 and Grade 6 Assessments of Reading, Writing and Mathematics are conducted annually in May and involve all Grade 3 and Grade 6 students in publicly funded schools in Ontario. Students are assessed over a five-day period, approximately two-and-a-half hours each day. The results from these assessments are reported at the individual student, school, school board and provincial levels. The assessments measure how well students have met the provin-cial learning expectations, as stated in The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1-8 in reading, writing and mathematics, that students are expected to have acquired by the end of the grade being assessed. These assessments contain performance-based activities (requiring written responses), short written-response and multiple-choice questions. This combination of question types al-lows students to demonstrate both the depth and the scope of their learning and provides a variety of ways for students to demonstrate what they know and what they can do.
In the reading component, students demonstrate their knowledge and skills by reading a vari-ety of materials such as factual information, stories and poetry. This part of the assessment measures how well students use various reading strategies and conventions and how effectively
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they understand concepts, make inferences and connect ideas. In the writing component, stu-dents demonstrate their knowledge and skills by using various forms of writing and by writing for different purposes. Students produce two pieces of written work. One piece models the writing process while the other is a short on-demand piece. In mathematics, students demon-strate their knowledge and skills by solving problems, applying procedures and explaining how they have arrived at their answers.
The Grades 3 and 6 assessments, like all of EQAO’s provincial initiatives, involve teachers at every stage. Educators from across the province participate in developing, field-testing and validating assessment materials, as well as the marking of student responses.
Grade 9 Assessment of Mathematics:
All Ontario Grade 9 students in publicly funded schools are expected to participate in this as-sessment. The assessment measures how well students have met the expectations in The On-tario Curriculum, Grades 9 and 10: Mathematics, and is based on the expectations of the Grade 9 mathematics curriculum, both Applied and Academic. Schools have the option of de-livering semestered or full-year courses; therefore, EQAO develops and administers separate versions of the assessment annually in January and May/June.
The assessment includes multiple-choice, short-answer and performance-based tasks. There are approximately two-and-a-half hours of testing that take place over two or four days. (There are two optional administrative approaches.) Reports are provided at the individual student, school, school board and provincial level.
Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT):
In 1999, the Ontario Ministry of Education announced that successful completion of the OSSLT would become one of the 32 requirements for an Ontario Secondary School Diploma. The OSSLT is administered annually in October, and is presented in two time blocks of two-and-a-half hours each, one during the morning of the first day and another on the morning of the following day. The first full administration of the OSSLT was in February, 2002. (The administra-tion of the assessment was delayed due to a security breach.)
The test consists of two integrated components: a reading component and a writing compo-nent. There are three types of questions: multiple-choice, short-answer and questions requiring an explanation. In reading, students are asked to read and answer questions related to a series of short information, graphic and narrative selections. In writing, students are asked to com-plete four writing tasks: a summary, a series of paragraphs expressing an opinion, a news re-port and an information paragraph.
In this assessment, students meet a minimum standard (pass) or do not meet the standard (do not pass). Students may pass/not pass one or both components of the assessment. If they do not pass one or both components, they can retake the assessment at the next administration.
On subsequent administrations, students are only required to pass the component(s) in which they were previously unsuccessful. Reports are provided at the individual student, school, school board and provincial levels, with more detailed feedback being provided to unsuccessful students.
Following the second full administration of the OSSLT in October 2002, the Ministry of Educa-tion announced that, beginning in the 2003-2004 school year, unsuccessful students who have had two opportunities to write the OSSLT would be eligible to participate in a course named the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course (following the same curricular design elements as the OSSLT). Successful completion of this new course will serve as the graduation requirement in lieu of passing the OSSLT.
National and International Assessments:
EQAO manages Ontario’s participation in the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada’s (CMEC) national School Achievement Indicators Program (SAIP) in mathematics, reading and
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writing and science. The assessments involve the testing of randomly selected samples of schools and 13- and 16-year-old students. In general, testing occurs in one subject per year on a rotating schedule. Reporting is at the provincial and national levels only. The sampling framework does not allow for reporting at the student, school or school board levels.
At the international level, EQAO manages the province’s participation in assessments such as the following: Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), conducted under the aus-pices of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); Trends in In-ternational Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS); Second Information Technology in Educa-tion Study (SITES); and Progress in InternaEduca-tional Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), conducted un-der the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). As with the national assessments, the international assessments involve randomly se-lected samples of schools and students at given ages/grades, and reporting is conducted solely at the national and provincial levels.
Education Quality Indicators Program (EQUIP):
The Education Quality Indicators Program (EQUIP) collects and reports information about the many factors inside and outside the school community that affect student achievement across the province. In 2001 – 2002, EQUIP collected data on twenty-one quality indicators at the elementary school level and thirteen quality indicators at the secondary school level.
EQUIP provided demographic and other environmental information to help teachers and ad-ministrators in their joint planning for school improvement. EQUIP also provided contextual information for examining and understanding student achievement scores.
Statistical and survey data were used in preparing EQUIP reports. Statistical data were gathered from a variety of sources including Statistics Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Education.
EQAO supplemented this quantitative information with survey data collected from individuals such as school administrators, educators, students and parents as part of EQAO’s provincial assessment program.
The intent of EQUIP is to present a picture of the entire school environment, not just the achievement results. Test scores are therefore placed in a broader framework of socio-economic data, the teaching and learning environment, school leadership, student mobility, accessibility of educational equipment and resources, as well as other information that can help students, parents, educators and the general public understand the variables that are related to student learning.
Improvement Planning:
EQAO ensures greater accountability in the publicly funded education system in Ontario and helps to improve the quality of education by providing comparable data on student achieve-ment, and by reporting on plans for improvement. Improvement planning is a strategy that brings about educational change by enhancing student outcomes and increasing school boards’ and schools’ capacity to design and manage change. Improvement plans are the means by which students, teachers, parents, principals and school board staff change conditions for learners to ensure improved achievement. School boards develop and release board-wide plans designed to foster and support improved student achievement. Using the system plan as a foundation, principals and teachers, working with parents, school councils and other represen-tatives of the community, prepare and release school plans for improvement. In support of improvement planning, EQAO publishes various documents, including the EQAO Guide to School and Board Improvement Planning and an Educator Handbook.
Each year, EQAO mandates that the province’s 72 publicly funded school boards submit their improvement plans to EQAO for review. The office reviews the school board improvement plans according to established criteria, and then individual reports are prepared and distributed to the boards to inform them of the extent to which the plans meet the criteria. In addition, EQAO develops a summary, provincial report that outlines the strengths and weaknesses ob-served in improvement planning.
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France – The School Sector
Gérard Bonnet
Head of European and International cooperation
Direction de l’évaluation et de la prospective, Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, France & Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Education, University of London