Provincial Achievement Tests as final exams for the Report Card

There are lots of reasons to like Twitter. Today I want to show how Twitter can provide anyone a direct, public line of communication with your local representatives and politicians.

The other day, I tweeted a question to Alberta's Education Minister, Thomas Lukaszuk:

Should teachers use the grade 3, 6 and 9 Provincial Achievement Tests as their final exam on the report card? @LukaszukMLA #abed
— Joe Bower (@joe_bower) January 6, 2012

Thomas Lukaszuk responded with this: 

@joe_bower This is not what #abed designed the test for.This would be another misuse of these tests.
— Thomas Lukaszuk (@LukaszukMLA) January 7, 2012

I agree with Lukaszuk that it is a misuse of grade 3, 6 and 9 Provincial Achievement Tests to include them as a part of the students' report card.

In light of this, I have a couple follow up questions for Thomas Lukaszuk:

• If Alberta Education never designed Provincial Achievement Tests to be used as a part of the students' report card, why does Alberta Education provide a form letter for schools and teachers to inform parents that the Provincial Achievement Tests will be used as a percentage on the report card? The letter can be found here on page 12. (I blogged about this two years ago, here.)

• I know of schools in Alberta that mandate teachers to use the Provincial Achievement Tests as a final exam and a percentage of the students' report card. I also know of Alberta teachers who do this voluntarily. According to Minister Lukaszuk, this is an inappropriate practice that Alberta Education never intended to have happen, so what will the government do to make this right?

In response to some of my questions, Lukaszuk responded with:

@joe_bower that is why I am reviewing the exam and practices surrounding it...
— Thomas Lukaszuk (@LukaszukMLA) January 8, 2012

I am eager to see how Provincial Achievement Tests will change.