By Joe Boulé
Missing information has forced the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board to delay its release of a school-by-school report card showing how students fared in last year’s Grade 3 provincial examinations.
The report was slated for release on Nov. 16, at the board’s education committee meeting. However, communication problems between the provincial Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) and the schools that improperly submitted tests to the EQAO are the main reason for the delay.
Proper reports should be ready for board release by January.
According to the OCDSB, more than a third of the region’s schools are currently without accurate results because of the mix-up.
Peter Frayne, the school board’s communications co-ordinator, says the board will wait until it has all the information before results will be released.
“Individual students results are missing and that will affect a school’s results,” says Frayne. “That’s particularly true in a smaller school.”
Schools with small Grade 3 populations — such as those in the Centretown area — would be seriously affected because each student represents a larger quotient of that school’s achievement level compared to schools with larger Grade 3 classes.
Frayne would not say which schools in the region are without complete results. His only comment is that board administration is “ascertaining the problem.”
“Administratively, we’re not going to say a whole heck of a lot more than that other then (the school results) have been delayed and this is why…it means the schools’ action plans are going to be delayed a bit.”
Dana D’Amore, spokesperson for education quality office in Toronto, says the individual student results are “not missing in the sense that they’ve gone lost.”
What is missing is data for an accurate board-wide report listing how each school ranks from the Grade 3 exam results.
“All (test) booklets have been marked, we want to assure you. Individual student reports have been issued and the marks are included on those reports,” says D’Amore.
She claims student information forms and class tracking sheets from some schools were not properly submitted to the education office when the tests were graded in July. As a result, accurate school and board reports cannot be made until the office tracks down the missing information from all schools.
“We’re working very closely with schools and boards that are affected by this, and obviously we can’t hold them to the Dec. 1 timeline for releasing their results,” says D’Amore.
Other boards that have been affected by the missing data problem will have to decide whether they should release what could be tainted school test results.
D’Amore refused to give the names of the other boards affected by the mistake.
“If I did that, I would be putting in jeopardy their decision to release or not to release. I don’t think I can do that…what if they chose?…no, I don’t think I should do that.”
Standardized Grade 3 testing started in 1997 to evaluate students against provincial standards in reading, writing and mathematics. It was criticized in its first year for taking 10 school days to complete. Last year, the tests only took five days.
This year, total results showed that 41 per cent of Grade 3 students from the Ottawa-Carleton area met provincial standards — marginally lower than the provincial average of 43 per cent.