Assessment Synergies and Tensions in Canada

• In Event: Synergy and Tension Between Large-Scale and Classroom Assessment: International Trends

Abstract

Objective: To draw on policy and research to describe the tensions and synergies between large-scale assessment and classroom teaching, learning, and assessment in Canada.

Perspectives and Findings: Each of Canada’s 10 provinces and 3 territories governs its own education system; however, there are striking similarities in curricular priorities and pedagogical trends across the country as reinforced by overarching agencies such as the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada. Within international testing programs, each province participates as its own jurisdiction, enabling comparisons across the country on TIMSS, PISA, and PIRLS. Each province/territory also maintains its own provincial large-scale testing program. Tests within provincial programs vary in their purpose with some serving gatekeeping functions (e.g. British Columbia’s Graduation Examinations), monitoring functions (e.g. Newfoundland and Labrador’s Criterion Reference Tests), instructional diagnosis functions (e.g., Manitoba’s Middle Years Assessment), and accountability functions (e.g., Ontario’s testing program) (Author, 2008). Testing occurs in various grades ranging from Grade 2 to Grade 12, and across subjects, most notably in mathematics, literacy, and sciences.

Through a current systematic review of classroom level grading policies and practices, Author (2017) documented that provincial tests hold varying weights ranging from 10-50% on student’s final course grades at upper secondary levels, with a recent trend in some provinces towards increasing the value of provincial test results on students’ final grades. Various classroom assessment policy documents across provinces provide general guidance on the relationship between the provincial testing program and classroom level assessment but offer limited guidance to teachers on how provincial tests should be used productively in classrooms to align or inform their teaching and assessments. There are few deliberate policy structures linking provincial testing processes to classroom level assessments in Canada. Instead, provincial priorities in professional learning and resource allotment tend to follow achievement trends on provincial results. Further, unlike other countries that use large-scale assessment results to narrow funding to underperforming schools, governments in Canada take the opposite approach: to support public schools with additional professional development and resources to ensure they begin to perform better over time.

Despite the real or perceived ‘stake’ of the assessment for students, reports across provinces often document the washback effects of testing on teacher pedagogy including instances of curriculum narrowing, test drills, and teaching test-taking skills, particularly around testing periods and tested subject domains (Author, 2008). However, under a framework of public accountability, provincial tests are more often used at school levels – by teachers and administrators – to help establish school targets, professional learning goals, and school improvement plans. In this way, while large-scale assessment in Canada may not systematically drive classroom assessment practices, they do hold influence on the direction for school improvement initiatives and professional development, which ultimately shapes classroom teaching, learning, and assessment practices.

Significance: The case of Canada shows a variety of accountability structures that lead to different models of update; however, in general, LSA have an indirect influence on classroom teaching and assessment, when considering the entire system of education (all grades and subjects).

Authors

• Louis Volante, Brock University

• Christopher DeLuca, Queen's University - Kingston