Day 14 - EQAO and Equity

The Problem...

What educational equity issues become apparent when looking at EQAO results?

Why?

• Provides relevant context for statistics concepts
• Opportunity to turn a social justice lens on inequity in education
• Potential for Grade 12 students to help Grade 9 students get prepared for EQAO testing

This idea comes from a lesson example that I developed for a curriculum interrogation assignment at OISE.  It's an interesting lesson idea that I thought would be good to improve by looking at it through a 21st Century lens.  

The Math Curriculum...

I have stated before that the math curriculum is very concept-heavy (at least compared to Science which distinguishes STSE and skills expectations from concepts).  This generally leaves little room for deep investigations about culturally relevant and engaging topics.  

The vast majority of examples of using social justice education, global citizenship education, culturally relevant/responsive pedagogy or critical pedagogy in math class that I have heard have been based on statistics.  Unfortunately, in the high school math curriculum, statistics really only seriously comes into play in Grade 12 Data Management.  I think one way of increasing student engagement in math classes would be to spread out the Data Management concepts throughout the grades (another may be providing teachers with a bit more flexibility with the concepts).

Because Data Management is the obvious math course for the delivery of social justice education, I have stayed away from it in my blog.  Up until this point, my math entries have focused more on being critical of bias in math in general.  This however is an investigation about how we can use math to look at equity in society.  It fits in directly with a bunch of the Data Management expectations.

EQAO and Equity...

The following plot compares Primary EQAO data to Stats Canada Data on average family income.  Each dot represents a school's average result.  The article this plot comes from can be found here (it was published by EQAO in 2008).  This plot alone can be the starting point for a serious discussion on equity in standardized testing and education. 

I thought a good way to start the class would be to hand out a bunch of questions from a past Grade 9 EQAO test.  This will get them in the frame of mind of a Grade 9 student.  They can start to think about what factors may give students students trouble with those questions.  Note: A bunch of past secondary EQAO tests and other EQAO related resources can be found here.  

Find the relationships...

Then they could start looking at data.  The above plot can be found online but to facilitate Knowledge Construction students should be going to the EQAO website to get the raw data.  They can then draw their own relationships.  Some of the simple relationships they can get directly from the EQAO data are gender and stream comparisons.  Questions that may be good discussion starters are:

• does the division between genders seem to be increasing or decreasing over time?
• does the division between academic/applied seem to be increasing or decreasing over time?

Other sources of data students can compare the EQAO results to are Stats Canada data and even the Fraser Institute Rankings (which frankly scare me because of how seriously they seem to be taken).

Critical analysis...

After establishing relationships, students can begin discussing why some of the relationships exist.  As a teacher, this is where things can become difficult and exciting.  The discussion is the part of the investigation that can be most thought provoking and interesting but often gets left out for the sake of saving time.  I believe we're talking about 21st Century Fluencies, that excuse is unacceptable.  Bypassing the discussion doesn't help students develop the Skilled Communication and Real-World Problem Solving skills necessary for the 21st Century Learner.

I think another huge topic of discussion is taking a step back and looking at standardized testing in general.  What is the purpose of EQAO?  Really it is to evaluate teachers and schools.  Is this the best way to do this?  Is it a good representation of the academic strength of the school?  How else should schools be evaluated?  What equity issues may arise because of standardized testing?  What biases are present in both the test itself and the data it produces?  

It would also be interesting to look at the standardized testing situation in the United States, where it is much more pervasive and compare it to Ontario.

Action!

Now, how can these results be used by the Grade 12 Data Management Students?  I would say it's a good opportunity for the Grade 12 students to help the Grade 9 students that are preparing for the EQAO.  If they find relationships in the data that could be beneficial to the younger students then they could share their results.  Most likely, they will not be able to directly influence any of the factors that cause inequity but they can at least advocate for and educate the Grade 9's.  Most students probably never think back to EQAO after they write it but I think this is a good opportunity to build some school community and leadership skills by having Grade 12 students setting up tutoring sessions for Grade 9's.  There's the Collaboration!

21C...


1. Collaboration: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
2. Knowledge Construction: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
3. Real-World Problem Solving & Innovation: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation
4. Skilled Communication: entry - adoption - adaptation - infusion - transformation