EQAO results to come next week after delay from Ontario’s education minister

Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra says he will release the results from last year’s EQAO and OSSLT tests next week after his “deep dive” into the results delayed their release.

The results are typically released in September but Calandra says he wanted to take some extra time to take a closer look at the results.

The education minister didn’t say if the EQAO results were poor but when asked if he is satisfied with the test being a useful tool, Calandra says more information will come on that next week, suggesting that change might be coming.

Students in Grades 3, 6 and 9 complete the EQAO standardized testing for reading, writing and math.

Then in Grade 10, students complete the OSSLT literacy test.

READ MORE: EQAO standardized test results to be released next week after delay, minister says

The test has faced criticism recently from teachers and oppositional parties. Most significant came last week in a statement from the president of the Elementary Teachers’ Foundation, who says the tests should be eliminated as they are a “flawed tool.”

Results posted online from last year show a slight dip in reading and writing for students in Grade 3 but math went up one per cent.

Some drops were seen in the results for reading and writing for Grade 6 students while math stayed the same.

Grade 9 students who are tested on math alone saw no change in their results from the year before.

Overall, the assessments met provincial standards.

As for the OSSLT, 85 per cent of students were successful last year which is the same as the year before that.

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