EQAO on Ontario - Education Quality and Accountability Office.
these are standardized tests done in elementary public schools to determine how well students are learning in Reading, writing and Math skills.
There are controversies surrounding these tests in gr.3 and 6. (There is also one in Grade 9 along with a literacy test (required for graduation in high school) and also a math test)
Some feel the curriculum and teachers 'teach to the test' as schools are scored and people feel this is not fair as many schools have a large immigrant population and can have well over 25 or more foreign languages (as first language) represented in their school population, making it hard to teach many students. There are many other factors that may see a specific school have lower scores - perhaps a larger population of students with learning disabilities is one as well as language difficulties. (as an aside - many immigrants retain their first language of their home country when arriving here and subsequent children born here are not taught English and go to school with little or no knowledge of the english language. This makes things difficult for not only that child but for the teacher and all children in the class. Compound that one child with 20 others, all with different languages and it is chaos.)
http://www.eqao.com/Parents/parents.aspx?Lang=E
But ... in Ontario text books students learn about Gordon Lightfoot and his song about the building of the railway and subsequently this country. On the EQAO test this year were a couple of questions about Lightfoot. This makes me very happy.
http://www.eqao.com/pdf_e/10/6e_Lang...oringGuide.pdf - scroll to page 19 and down..or on the left - Questions 18 and 19.
These would be answers provided by students in Grade 6..- around 11 years of age. The scoring guide is first with the requirements listed. Each answer from a student has a score beside it.
Learning about Lightfoot in school
