Ford government faces calls to release delayed EQAO scores

The Ford government is facing growing calls to release the results of province-wide standardized testing, after the minister’s office confirmed he was delaying their publication to allow for more analysis.

Generally, Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) results are published sometime toward the end of September, offering a snapshot of numeracy and literacy in the province.

This year, however, the government has chosen to delay their publication, citing concerns about some of the results and the need to create a plan to improve them.

Calandra’s office said the results would be released soon, but that the minister wanted to take a deep dive into what the scores meant for board-by-board education and how to improve upon them.

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They did not answer questions about why the analysis couldn’t take place after the scores had been made public.

Opponents have demanded the scores be immediately released, arguing parents and students need to know how they’re doing sooner rather than later.

“EQAO results are for educators and students so they know what help they may need to learn at the beginning of the school year,” Ontario Liberal MPP John Fraser said.

“The school year is close to being half over, and the Minister has been holding onto the results so he can study them. That’s wrong.”

The NDP called it “deeply troubling,” while the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario said the delay in results should lead the government to abolish the standardized testing altogether.

“Reducing success to a narrow set of test scores is not only misleading, it is demoralizing,” President David Mastin wrote in a statement.

“It dismisses the challenges faced by English language learners, students with special education needs, and those living in poverty, whose progress and achievements should not be reduced to a number on a spreadsheet.”

Last year’s results showed literacy was down, while math results were either steady or improving.

The 2023-24 school year EQAO results, for example, had Grade 6 and 9 math results stubbornly low, with only about half of students meeting the standard.