Real Learning First | A Discussion on Student Testing in Alberta

 In Alberta, all Grade 3 students write provincial achievement tests (PATs) in mathematics and English language arts, and all Grades 6 and 9 students write PATs in the four core subjects.

According to Alberta Education, the tests determine how well students are learning what they are expected to learn; inform Albertans about students' achievement relative to provincial standards; and assist schools, school authorities and the province in monitoring and improving student learning.

Test results are being misused

While teachers recognize the need for system accountability, teachers are opposed to standardized testing, including achievement testing, when the test is not appropriate to the educational needs of the student and when the results are misused. Wide-scale standardized testing provides very little meaningful information on student achievement. The use of the results to rank and order schools is misguided at best, and the emphasis on testing has a derogatory impact on student learning. Valuable classroom time and financial resources are better spent focusing on student learning.

Alternatives to the current testing regime

Student learning could be improved greatly by ending Grade 3 provincial testing and replacing it with diagnostic testing that can be used to assess learning difficulties and to help direct student programming. Additionally, system accountability can be maintained by replacing the current Grades 6 and 9 testing programs with PATs administered to a sampling of students, such that no individual student is required to write a PAT in more than one subject area in any given year.