Standardized tests ready in a year, Thompson says

The department of education will develop a culturally relevant method of standardized testing within a year, Manitok Thompson, the minister of education, said during the legislative assembly sitting in Baker Lake this week.

“If you move from Kugluktuk to Gjoa Haven and your kid is in Grade 3, he shouldn’t go to Grade 2,” Thompson said in an interview on Tuesday.

“It has come to our attention as mothers,” she added. “People are moving as a result of decentralization. Grade 9 in Coral Harbour may be Grade 10 in Rankin.”

In February, the Iqaluit District Education Authority resolved to implement Alberta tests in Iqaluit schools.

But the department of education overruled the decision, saying the English-only tests are not appropriate within the Nunavut education system.

The department began a working group aimed at developing Nunavut-specific tests. And this week, Thompson committed to providing those tests “a year from now.”

“Standardized benchmarks can be designed and implemented with our requirements and needs in mind,” she said in a minister’s statement.

“We can design an education system incorporating our own values and traditions without harming the academics that our children need to succeed.”