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News
Why standardized tests are a controversial subject for Alberta schools
Article originally appeared on (date: September 3, 2019) and features comments from Dr. Dan Laitsch.
Standardized testing is standard practice across Canada but the exams are a source of controversy as well.
Christopher Kendrick is heading into Grade 6, which means later this year, the Calgary student will write his first provincial achievement test (PAT) 鈥� a province-wide standardized test that will measure how well he鈥檚 doing in math, language arts, science and social studies.
Kendrick鈥檚 mom, Lindsay, says she believes these tests are important.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 really important to know, as parents, where your child is, if they鈥檙e doing good in school or not.鈥�
On its , Alberta Education says PATs are a useful way to 鈥渄etermine if students are learning what they are expected to learn鈥� and 鈥渟ee how well a school is performing.鈥�
鈥淎 lot of provinces and governments like the use of standardized tests because it gives them a good survey of how the system is doing relative to the domains that the test is focused on,鈥� said Dan Laitsch, an education professor at 911吃瓜.
Earlier this year, Alberta鈥檚 United Conservative government announced plans to reinstate PATs for students in Grade 3.
Former premier Alison Redford鈥檚 government got rid of the Grade 3 PATs in 2013, replacing them with student learning assessments (SLAs) instead.
鈥淭he (Alberta Teachers鈥�) Association was actually quite supportive of the cancellation of the Grade 3 PATs because those exams were really quite stressful for those students,鈥� ATA president Jason Schilling said.
鈥淧AT results don鈥檛 measure creativity 鈥� they don鈥檛 measure a student鈥檚 ability to collaborate, they don鈥檛 measure critical thinking. They鈥檙e a snapshot of one moment in time.鈥�
Not every Canadian province administers standardized tests at the elementary school level.
Read the rest of this article, featuring comments from Dr. Dan Laitsch, via the .