Page 98 - Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting in Ontario Schools. First Edition, Covering Grades 1 to 12. 2010

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APPENDIX 1: LARGE–SCALE ASSESSMENTS
APPENDIX 1: LARGE–SCALE ASSESSMENTS
Large-scale assessments differ from classroom assessment and evaluation in their purposes and in the way they are designed, administered, and scored. Classroom assessment and evaluation strategies are developed by teachers to help individual students take the next steps in learning and to determine and inform students and parents of the student’s achievement. Large-scale assessments, by contrast, are one-time measures, developed by institutions or agencies at a provincial, national, or international level and designed primarily to provide snapshots of the strengths and weaknesses of education systems.
Large-scale assessments are administered at key stages in students’ education. They contain standardized content and are administered and scored according to standardized procedures. They enable governments and school boards to compare results over time in a consistent and objective manner, providing information that can be used to develop education policies and allocate resources. These objective measures of student achievement also help to build public confidence in the ability of governments and educators to readily identify key areas in which the education system needs improvement. Both classroom assessment and evaluation and large-scale assessments are important and useful and, when taken together, paint a comprehensive picture of the learning and achievement of students.
Provincial Large-scale Assessments
The legislation (Bill 30) that established the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) also requires all students in publicly funded schools to participate in provincial large-scale assessments.
The EQAO annually develops, administers, and reports the results of large-scale assessments that are based on the Ontario curriculum for all students in publicly funded schools, as follows:
• assessment of reading, writing, and mathematics, Primary Division (Grades 1–3)
• assessment of reading, writing, and mathematics, Junior Division (Grades 4–6)
• Grade 9 assessment of mathematics (Applied and Academic)
• the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT; first administered to students in Grade 10)
These provincial assessments provide data about student achievement to principals, teachers, parents, the public, school district staff, and the government and are used to help educators:
• identify strengths and areas for improvement in individual students’ learning;
• identify strengths and areas for improvement in the education system;
• develop education policies, allocate resources, and determine the success of those policies and resource allocations;