Thursday, June 14, 2012

Withdrawing from Provincial Achievement Tests

An Edmonton father faces pressure from school administrators after he said he did not want his daughter to write the Provincial achievement test.


The CBC ran a story on how an Alberta mother received pressure about her decision to opt her daughter out of grade six Provincial Achievement Tests. This is the same mother who wrote a guest post for this blog on the pressure she received.

There are many teachers who opt their children out of Provincial Achievement Tests. Here is an anonymous post from a teacher on how they opted their child out. They decided to remain anonymous in fear of reprimand.



1 comment:

  1. It is very unclear in Ontario whether parents have the option to withdraw or not. EQAO documents used to say all students were 'required' but in the most recent booklet that's been softened to 'expected to write'. There is no definitive process for withdrawal and whether or not parents have problems seems to depend on whether or not the principal they are working with feels pressure to have the school score high on the tests.

    As near as I can tell only the principal can excuse a student and then only legitimately if it would cause undue stress (e.g. a high needs student). Other students may declare themselves 'sick' on testing days, but the principal is 'supposed' to have those students write the test if they return during the 3 weeks writing period. So we have some parents having to keep their child home 'sick' for 3 weeks.

    No one seems to want to clarify any of this, I presume because it may result in many kids opting out. It's a mess!

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