Ontario teachers are calling on the provincial government to include their expertise in the review of the standardized testing. Test scores collected by the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) during the 2024-2025 school year were released in early December after weeks of delay.
The data from EQAO showed reading and writing test scores outpacing mathematics scores. Among students in grade six, 86 per cent of students met the provincial standard in reading. By comparison, only 51 per cent of grade six students met the provincial standard in mathematics.
A similar gap exists among high school students who take a provincial mathematics test in grade nine and a literacy test in grade ten. Among the high school students taking the math test, about 58 per cent met the provincial standard. In the tenth grade literacy test, 85 per cent of first-time eligible students passed.
In an effort to address EQAO test scores, the Ontario government announced Wednesday, March 4 that it had appointed an expert advisory body to lead a comprehensive review of student achievement and assessment. The expert body consists of think tank CEO William Robinson and David R. Johnson, professor emeritus from Wilfrid Laurier University.
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) released a statement saying the union is deeply concerned by the lack of teacher presence in this body. The union wrote that the real-life experience of teachers cannot be replaced by a purely economic or policy theory focused analysis.
“It is concerning that the Ford government has moved forward without including the expertise of teachers and education workers,” said Martha Hradowy, President of OSSTF. “Hundreds of our members applied to contribute their real-life classroom experience to this review. Instead, the government has appointed think tank and academic advisers who will earn $1,500 a day. If the goal is to improve student achievement, teachers and education workers working directly with students need to be part of the process.”
The Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF) has been advocating for better education funding to promote student achievement. Teachers all over the country have long been struggling with increasing class sizes and increasing classroom complexity. A survey done by the CTF showed that class sizes are already too large and staffing levels are not sufficient to meet the diverse needs of students in these large classrooms.
The survey showed that direct teaching only accounts for 36 per cent of class time across all grades and 80 per cent of teachers say they do not have access to adequate education assistants, resource teachers, or dedicated specialized support personnel. CTF president said proper education funding will be key to addressing these concerns in any jurisdiction.
The focus on EQAO test results may not result in the kind of funding the CTF is looking for. The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) released a statement in December that said the emphasis on EQAO standard tests is harming education funding rather than helping students.
The ETFO said that while standardized tests are aimed at identifying education gaps, research shows that EQAO has not closed the achievement gap along racial and socioeconomic lines. Panic around low test scores do, however, shift accountability from the government’s chronic underfunding of public education to educators. For this union, the solution is not just including teachers in an assessment, but scrapping standardized tests for educator-led assessment alternatives.
