Iqaluit parent opposes standardized testing

Recently it was brought to my attention that the Iqaluit District Education Authority (IDEA) was arbitrarily pushing ahead with standardized testing for Grades 3, 6 and 9, based upon an Alberta English-based testing model, without any real attempt at input from parents or staff, and apparently without permission from the department of education.

As a result of a discussion with other concerned parents about this issue, I felt compelled to write the minister of education expressing my concerns.

Being a past member and chairperson of the IDEA, the issue of standardized testing is nothing new to me. However, in the past, the IDEA had always opposed the use of such testing in our school system based on numerous considerations, including the fundamental question of what exactly would we be achieving by conducting such testing.

At that time, as now, I have seen more compelling arguments against conducting such testing to convince me that this is a direction that we in Nunavut do not want to head toward. The legitimacy and validity of the entire issue of standardized testing continues to be hotly debated in education circles in many parts of Canada and the U.S.

A fact not well known is that our school system continues to use mainly the old GNWT curriculum from kindergarten to Grade 9, with some Nunavutized additions, mainly in Inuktitut, and students don’t begin to use the Alberta curriculum until they reach Grade 10.

Consequently, Iqaluit incurs its largest dropout rate at the Grade 10 level, in part due to the sudden change in curriculum and cultural-language issues. Add to this the structure of our bilingual education streaming system, where students in the Inuktitut schooling stream in Nunavut make a transition from a full Inuktitut curriculum into the English-based curriculum stream at Grades 4 and 5.

To this end, it is a proven fact that students whose first language is English do dramatically better than their English-as-a-second language peers in every subject and grade that is based in the English learning stream. This only sets those ESL students up for failure and embarrassment if subjected to the proposed English-based standardized test.

So really, what would we possibly hope to gain by testing kids in Grades 3, 6 and 9 based on an Alberta, or any other English-based curriculum, in Nunavut? In my opinion, it would do more damage than good and until I see real compelling arguments to the contrary, I will continue to oppose standardized testing in Iqaluit.

I also read with great amusement in the Nunavut Hansard last week, where Iqaluit Centre MLA Hunter Tootoo declared that those concerned parents who foolishly oppose standardized testing are making uninformed assumptions and should instead start attending IDEA meetings to get our facts straight. I have two things to say to that:

The only one making foolish uninformed assumptions is our grandstanding Iqaluit Centre MLA, who if he wasn’t so busy looking for political sound bites, would have done some informed research of his own and realized he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

It is the duty of the IDEA to put forth their agenda to the community and not to force arbitrary and paternalistic decisions upon the parents, and students, of this community without any input or approval from them.

To date, they have completely failed to do this in any form or format. On an ironic note, isn’t it interesting that the chairperson and another member of the IDEA, who are staunch promoters of standardized testing, in fact, home-school their children in English. Sounds like hypocrisy is alive and well to me!

John Thomas
Iqaluit