March 17, 2010
‘TIS THE SEASON
FOR STANDARDIZED TESTS
BY ELLEN ASIEDU
The end of the holiday season brings the beginning of a new season in high school. It‘s standardized test season. Stress is palpable and the tension can be cut with a knife.
This evaluation season, though, things are different. Low success rates in mathematics is a problem that‘s facing schools across the TDSB, and at Mackenzie the issue seems to be magnified because of the success that our MaCS and Gifted students usually demonstrate.
EQAO math scores are ―…not where we want them to be.‖ says Mr.Dallin, one of the vice-principals. With this in mind, teachers sprang into action and cre-ated a Numeracy Committee to address the issue. Ms. Karegeorgiou, head of the math department, revealed a strategy being im-plemented in hopes of raising EQAO scores. ―We‘re holding testing in the cafeteria rather than in the class-rooms.‖ As well, the 911 Club has been created in hopes of restoring the stan-dard.
―What club?‖ you ask. Clearly, get-ting the word out is another issue at Mac. Moreover, peer tutors for math are few and far be-tween in comparison with student need.
But perhaps the reason why grade nines aren‘t doing as well lies within the test itself. In grade nine, students are coming from a vari-ety of mathematic backgrounds. Eve-ryone is at a differ-ent level and in a semestered system, teachers scramble to bring everybody up to the same stage to be able to write the EQAO within five months. This en-deavour is made harder when it‘s considered that some grade eight students haven‘t been promoted to grade nine, but transferred.
―There‘s a lot of pressure on us,‖ said one grade nine stu-dent. ―…because it counts towards our report card mark‖.
Perhaps it would help if the math and Literacy Tests were both done in grade ten.
In grade ten students are in their second year of high school and are a little more acclimatized to learning ex-pectations. They know what to anticipate in terms of high school writing, therefore making them more prepared to take the Literacy Test. At Mackenzie, the Literacy Test average is 90%. No problem there.
This leads to the conclusion that stu-dents in semestered institutions like Mackenzie are not given sufficient time to develop strategies and digest material enough to spit it back on a test.
Alas, EQAO tests have been written and students have to wait until next September to see how well they made the adjustment. But some of them can be consoled with the fact that standard-ized mathematic tests are done with.
If you‘re reading this and you‘re scheduled to take EQAO this semester, I highly recommend that you join the math club or get a friend to help you.
Be prepared.
