GUELPH – The Wellington Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) is requesting the Ministry of Education defer the Grade 3 and 6 EQAO assessments for this school year.
The board’s director of education Mike Glazier told trustees in a Feb. 7 board meeting that, due to the learning challenges posed by the pandemic, WCDSB has expressed concern about proceeding with the assessments for this school year.
The board previously made the decision in January to pause the Grade 9 EQAO assessment until further notice.
“We made a decision based on the fact that a number of our students were currently online, coming back with concerns about absenteeism, concerns about the loss of learning days,” Glazier said.
“So we did decide to postpone the Grade 9 math EQAO assessment for that cohort of students that were supposed to write that at the end of that period of time.”
While school boards are able to pause the Grade 9 assessment, alterations, cancellations or deferrals outside of this school year would require a ministerial order.
Glazier said the board received a memo from the ministry indicating that school boards are expected to ensure they are complying with the requirement of participating in the Grade 3 and 6 EQAO assessment as well future Grade 9 math EQAO assessments.
“We have provided feedback to the ministry that we would ask for their consideration of some of those requests given that our students have experienced a number of various challenges throughout the school year and the past year,” he explained.
“And have expressed concern over what that assessment may be measuring given the many disruptions that we’ve had over the past year.”
The Upper Grand District School Board also recently sent a letter to the ministry requesting the deferral of the EQAO assessments for Grade 3 and 6. EQAO tests assess students’ literacy and math skills at key points in their kindergarten to Grade 12 education.
The board is required to administer tests by the end of June. The administration window for EQAO assessments for the primary and junior division are currently scheduled to take place from May 4 to June 24.
