Eliminating EQAO and letting teachers teach would save money, produce results - ETFO.
by Sam Hammond, President, Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario - Origjnally published in ETFO Voice and on publicvalues.ca
Originally conceived as a way to ensure accountability in the system and ostensibly improve education, Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) tests are in fact an obstacle to quality education. EQAO tests are based on a very narrow definition of accountability: student achievement on one day on one written test. Today this narrow and limited assessment is used to rank individual schools, students, and ultimately teachers. EQAO test results are inappropriately used to compare schools and neighbourhoods and, in some cases, serve to affect real estate values.
Because of EQAO tests we have schools where excessive emphasis on literacy and numeracy limits students' exposure to a full range of much-needed knowledge and skills. EQAO tests reward seat work and the ability to do well on pencil and paper tests to the exclusion of creativity, the ability to work with others, independent thinking, and real critical problem solving. The emphasis on improving test scores has taken Ontario education back decades, to a time when students sat at desks in rows and regurgitated material on demand. Finally, the money spent to maintain EQAO could be put to far better use in classrooms across this province.
This is what we heard when we polled ETFO members for your opinions on provincewide testing and gave you an opportunity to detail your experiences. (Read the findings reported on page 11.) Overwhelmingly you told us that it's time for the government to take action and eliminate or at least modify the EQAO and the testing it administers. It is time to let you do what you do best - TEACH! You also told us loud and clear that change is needed at its sister organization, the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat (LNS). Together the two agencies account for over $100 million in government spending. On your behalf, we told the government in our pre-budget brief that these are two places where it could cut spending and actually improve our schools.
We stated that our preference would be the outright elimination of provincewide tests for grade 3 and 6 students. We provided alternatives: - adopting a two-year moratorium on the tests - testing on a two-or three-year cycle - moving to random sample testing.
We also had useful advice for the government about the $77.5 million spent each year on the LNS. In a phrase: eliminate, suspend, or reduce - in that order. - The 80 student achievement officers, who work with schools and boards, cost $14.1 million annually and duplicate the work of school board consultants. These positions should be eliminated. - The Ontario Focused Intervention Partnership (OFIP) costs $33 million and is an effort to raise EQAO scores. We told the government to get rid of it. - The School Effectiveness Framework costs $12 million. We suggested that it be dismantled immediately.
The government could save even more money by taking down the School Information Finder website. This government site, which highlights EQAO scores, allows people to compare and shop for schools. The website trivializes your hard work and your students' achievements. All education stakeholders - teacher federations, parent groups, principals, and school boards - have been united in their opposition to it.
So far the government has not heard the message. For that reason, we have posted a video on our website, www.etfo.ca, and a link that encourages members, parents, and the public to send letters to their MPPs requesting that the site be dismantled. I urge you to use it. Let the government hear your voice.
We are working hard to make the government aware of the negative impact of its focus on testing, test scores, and the unwarranted and demanding focus on literacy and numeracy. We call on this government to act immediately and take steps to improve our schools and save money at the same time. With the concerns about the deficit mounting, now is the time to take advantage of a unique opportunity.
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written by Alberta Teachers' Association, January 25, 2012
Thank you for writing.
Alberta teachers have always accepted, indeed welcomed, the responsibility to be accountable to students, parents and the community. As the professionals charged with the task of student assessment, Alberta teachers are opposed to standardized testing, including provincial achievement testing (PAT), because the tests are not appropriate to the educational and personalized learning needs of students in a rapidly changing world. Many studies have shown that wide-scale standardized testing provides very little meaningful information on student achievement, and the use of high-stakes testing to rank schools is misguided at best; at worst, it negatively affects both student learning and teaching practices. It also disregards the need to develop the whole child through the cultivation of citizenship skills, athletic potential, artistic talent, strength of character, technological proficiency and any number of other traits critical for 21st century learning.
Valuable classroom time and financial resources are better spent focusing on student learning and supporting professional teachers with authentic approaches to assessment both of and for student learning. Authentic student assessment is a key function of teachers' professional practice, but to do this job properly, teachers need the authority and autonomy to perform authentic assessments for learning.
System-level public assurance and accountability can be maintained through provincial sampling of students, such that no individual student is required to write a PAT in more than one subject area in any given year. Your comments about sampling are not well-informed and fail to grasp the methodology used to randomize the sample population.
We are always pleased to hear opinions from members of the pubic and would be happy to pass along the names of the studies referred to above.
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written by samhammond UDHGS HAHA, January 07, 2012
i found this quote funny "EQAO tests are based on a very narrow definition of accountability: student achievement on one day on one written test" well, i wrote EQAO and i can tell you... it is hard, also it is written at the end of the year, which is supposed to be used to reflect everything the students have learned, where as the question are high level thinking questions as opposed to knowledge, which is application as opposed to the usual knowledge questions kids have to deal with the whole year. EQAO is not an inappropiate testing tool it is the most important.
random sampling is just stupid, because it can be manipulated so that only the high achievers take it so it manipulates the results which is why every student must take it.
You should talk about money being wasted, you guys waste money in so much ways so you can fill in your own greedy pockets.
these test are good it puts pressure on teachers to actually teach! A job is supposed to have stress dude so why not grow up and act like a man
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