Many education experts have questioned the usefulness of EQAO standardized testing for students, criticizing the bending of day to day work around the test in the months leading up to it. According to Joel Westheimer, a Full Professor of Education and Democracy at the University of Ottawa, “a lot of resources and a lot of money is spent on EQAO that could also be spent in other ways.”
Still, Brad Oster, Superintendent of Education for the Rainy River District School Board, believes the EQAO “has integrated” other subjects outside of math and literacy by referencing curriculum material in subjects like science and social studies, and can be a useful tool..
“I feel that EQAO provides … opportunities for our board and individual schools to focus on those areas for growth by not only looking at the academic achievement data but also the student attitudes around those subject areas.”
Oster knows from first-hand teaching experience that students do feel anxiety about the tests.
“I was a grade five, six teacher for the majority of my career, and I taught all subject areas other than second languages.”
“I’m speaking from being a teacher,” said Oster, “students do feel anxiety around the test, but, that’s where it is the job of the board, schools, and those teachers in the EQAO years to help those students not feel as much anxiety by preparing them.”
Adding, “EQAO questions are all from the Ontario curriculum,” and, “There are no questions that are provided on that assessment that wouldn’t be covered in the primary, for instance.”
According to Oster, EQAO tests give school boards “areas for growth” via EQAO data on student attitudes about learning, and define the questioning in the EQAO tests in three different categories.
“I look at that board data,” said Oster, “to look at those areas in mathematics, reading and writing.”
There are three different types of questions, he said. There are knowledge and understanding questions, application questions, and thinking questions.”
“You would often see questions in reading that tied to a social-studies or science connection in that, in that grade.”
“We know that our students at Rainy River District School Board and across the province do better in those knowledge and understanding questions. We know, based on the data, that the application and thinking questions we don’t score as hot,” said Oster.
“We know that, in classrooms, we need to be providing students with more of those application and thinking type of questions,” said Oster.
However, Oster acknowledges EQAO doesn’t account for their creativity, critical thinking or “their ability as social beings.”
“EQAO doesn’t take those things into account,” said Oster.
However, Oster does think there is still an opportunity for teachers to “report on all those other subject areas.”
“Teachers assess students all the time,” said Oster, “we have progress reports in the fall, we have a first-term report card that goes home in February, and then we have a second report card that goes home in June.”
“That’s where teachers can report on all those other subject areas and the strengths and those areas for growth,” said Oster.
“I think EQAO is a valid tool and I believe it’s a good tool because it helps myself to drive my instruction the next year. When I’m looking at the data and I see that students struggled or had challenges in a specific area, it forced me, as a teacher, to self-reflect on how well did I cover that concept the previous year. That’s how I use the data as an educator, and I think that is really, really valuable.”
