Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty speaks to kindergarten student Dakota French during a visit to Victor Lauriston School in Chatham, Ontario, Tuesday, January 12, 2010.Geoff Robins/The Canadian Press
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty says the pressure public school educators face to perform well on province-wide tests in reading, writing and mathematics is no excuse for breaking the rules.
"We're all under pressure in different ways. … That's just a part of life," Mr. McGuinty told reporters on Tuesday.
"The issue is, what's the right way and what's the wrong way to respond to pressure."
Mr. McGuinty was commenting on revelations reported by The Globe and Mail that 10 public schools in Ontario have been investigated for cheating and irregularities on last year's standardized tests. The problems, he said, should prompt the government agency that oversees the mandatory tests to ensure that the appropriate checks and balances are in place.
It was not the Education Quality and Accountability Office that detected the problems, which included providing students with questions beforehand and photocopying the previous year's test. Rather, it was schools or parents who alerted the EQAO to what looked like cheating and other irregularities.
Ontario introduced standardized testing in 1996 for children in Grades 3, 6, 9 and 10. Mr. McGuinty reiterated that the tests remain an important tool to gauge how effectively students are learning.
"I have a tremendous amount of faith in the integrity and the effectiveness of that testing," he said.
"If there are problems in some of those schools, I'm counting on the EQAO to root those out and help us further strengthen the integrity of that testing."
He said the tests help teachers, parents and government deploy resources in the best possible way to improve academic achievement.
"It's become a very important part of our educational landscape here in Ontario," he said.
Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak accused the McGuinty government of "watering down" standards for the tests in a bid to improve school scores.
"The story is very concerning," he said, referring to the report in The Globe.
But Mr. Hudak told reporters he is a strong supporter of standardized testing.
"I think it's important to see where we're succeeding and where we're falling behind."
Karen Howlett