It’s Past Time to Re-assess EQAO

“Minister of Education Paul Calandra should be asking: ‘Does standardized testing best support Ontario students?’ The facts, research, and Ontario teachers who know our schools best definitively say ‘no.’

If the Minister is serious about examining EQAO through an advisory body, then he should be working meaningfully alongside parents, teachers, and other education partners and experts to do so.

The advisory body must have real education experience, and the Minister must be genuinely open to implementing the recommendations that best support student success. Teachers have the professional judgment needed to understand why students might be struggling and how to best support them. We see the barriers, we see the progress, and we see the potential in our students every single day – but we need a partner in the government who is willing to hear us and work collaboratively with us.

EQAO has never been an effective or comprehensive tool for assessing student learning, and the negative consequences of standardized testing on students’ health, well-being, and learning are well-known and documented. It offers overly simplified data with no insight into the day-to-day realities students face, nor can it explain why learning gaps exist or provide the resources and supports needed to close them.

Ontario students need real investment in smaller class sizes, more time with their teachers, and the resources and supports to succeed and thrive – not EQAO.

If the government still believes some sort of province-wide testing is necessary, they should at least move toward a random sampling model, as is used by the Programme for International Student Assessment and other education systems around the world.

Any attempt to double down on EQAO standardized testing will only exacerbate the stress and anxiety in our under-resourced schools, which is the absolute last thing that our students need right now when our publicly funded education system is being stretched beyond its limits.

This is a pivotal moment for Minister Calandra to rethink what is truly needed to foster student success. This cannot just be more lip service, as political theatre is not in the best interest of our students. It must be an open and honest review of EQAO and its shortcomings. Catholic teachers hope the Minister is finally ready to sit down and work alongside us to realize the education system Ontario students need and deserve.”

- René Jansen in de Wal, President of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association