Living in a Fool’s Paradise

Ontario’s Minister of Education is in the news today boasting that the percentage of successful students on Ontario’s literacy test has risen from 84% of eligible students who chose to take the test to 85%.

Those who take comfort from this slight uptick ought to take a look at the sample test booklets provided by the EQAO. None of the reading passages is higher than a grade 8 readability level, and most of the questions are dead easy. Some people might in fact find it a bit worrisome that 15% of participating 15-year-olds (almost 15,000 students) failed such an undemanding test.

Add to this the fact that the number of eligible students who participated dropped by about one percent this year (meaning that about 6500 students ducked the test), and the percentage of eligible students who received “accommodations” rose by about three percent. And don’t forget the 10% or so of ineligible students (students who were excused from writing the test because they were virtually certain to fail). 

All in all, it translates into a non-pass rate of about 31% or 40,000 Ontario students. Small comfort indeed.

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