The Education Quality and Accountability Office is a Crown agency of the Government of Ontario in Canada. It was legislated into creation in 1996 in response to recommendations made by the Royal Commission on Learning in February 1995.

EQAO is governed by a board of directors appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council. Cameron Montgomery has been the chair of the board since February 2019. EQAO has an annual budget of approximately $33 million CDN.

Purpose

The stated purpose of EQAO tests is to ensure that there is accountability between school boards and schools in the publicly funded system in Ontario. Educational accountability is important to three key stakeholders: taxpayers, elected officials, and teachers. By providing yearly standardized tests, the Ministry of Education hopes to increase the quality of education in Ontario, while also using the tests to make plans for future improvement.

EQAO tests are intended to measure the student's ability to:

  • Make sense of what they read in different kinds of texts
  • Express their thoughts in writing using appropriate grammar, spelling and punctuation and
  • Use appropriate math skills to solve problems

EQAO versus classroom tests

EQAO tests have different goals and intentions than normal classroom tests. These tests are not the same, but when considering the EQAO test results along with the classroom results, they can provide a picture of the students' overall learning.

Classroom tests:

  • measure how well students have learned specific information;
  • provide quick results teachers can use to modify teaching strategies;
  • may have subjective components, based on the teacher's knowledge of each student, and
  • provide results that may not be comparable across the school, board or province

Use of test results

Educators use the results of Ontario's province-wide tests in combination with other important information, such as demographic information, to help improve student learning and achievement. According to a 2010 survey by EQAO, more than 95 per cent of elementary school principals and 80 per cent of grade three and six teachers use EQAO test results to identify areas of strength and areas for improvement in reading, writing and math programs. More than 95 per cent of principals also reported that they use the data to guide overall school improvement initiatives.

Ontario student achievement results have had mixed success and failure since the EQAO began. For example, in the five years preceding 2018, grade six student reading scores increased from 79 to 82 per cent of students meeting the provincial standard (up from an all-time low in 1999 of only 48 per cent). Similar improvements were seen for writing with the percentage of students meeting the provincial standard increasing from 78 to 80 per cent in the last five years (up from an all-time low in 1999 of only 48 per cent). However, over the same five years math scores degraded from 54 per cent of students achieving the provincial standard in 2013 to only 49 per cent in 2018. Previous EQAO math testing had a high score of 63 per cent in 2009. The dramatic 14 per cent decrease in math scores in only ten years has resulted in the province launching an entire new math curriculum for the 2019–2020 school year.

Information for parents

EQAO tests are based on The Ontario Curriculum, which is the foundation for what is taught in classrooms every day. Therefore, students should not need to study or do extra preparation for the test. All of the information in the test will have been covered by the classroom teacher throughout the entire school year. The best way for parents to support their children in writing the test is simply to be supportive and a play an active role in their children's learning every day of the school year. The school boards also provide parents with information sessions regarding the tests, to ensure that the parents are fully aware of the purpose, format and implementation of the test. and the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO). Since the beginning, EQAO has received extensive criticism, especially about areas such as validity of the test, timelines for the tests, uses of the data results, and security. are available on the agency's website, some have complained that the office publishes little technical information about its tests. An evaluation conducted for EQAO, published by it in 2013, and posted on the website mentions no aspects of reliability or validity other than inter-rater agreement, and inter-rater agreement is presented as evidence of validity rather than of reliability.

Some have also pointed out that EQAO's staff tends to be drawn from the provincial education establishment. For example, former chair Charles Pascal, is a former deputy minister of education. The office's impartiality has been questioned when it has issued test results that might be taken as reflecting well on the provincial government.

Another major area of criticism is focused on the monetary expenses used each year to conduct the EQAO tests. The annual report states that $33 million was used in 2009/2010, plus an additional $77 million spent by the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat, in hopes to improve future test scores. Some critics believe that the money poured into these annual tests could be better spent on things such as smaller class sizes, new schools, new classrooms, additional technology in classrooms, additional educational assistants, and additional classroom materials. Studies have shown that students enrolled in early French Immersion programs demonstrate a lag in their English literacy skills in the grade three EQAO test. These lower scores cause undue stress and concern for parents, students and teachers of these students. It has been recommended that EQAO offers the opportunity for early immersion students to opt out of the grade three testing as the results do not accurately represent the students' abilities.

References

See also

  • Provincial Achievement Tests
  • List of Canadian primary and secondary examinations