This book examines the history of standardized testing in Ontario leading to the current context and its impact on racialized identities, particularly on Grade 3 students, parents, and educators. Using a theoretical argument supplemented with statistical trends, the author illuminates how EQAO tests are culturally and racially biased and promote a Eurocentric curriculum and way of life privileging white students and those from higher socio-economic status. This book spurs readers to further question the use of EQAO standardized testing and challenges us to consider alternative models which serve the needs of all students.
Table of Content
1. My Spiritual Journey as an Educator.- 2. Elementary Standardized Testing on the Bubble: To Eliminate or Maintain?.- 3.
Royal Commission on Learning and the Birth of EQAO and the Accountability Movement in Ontario.- 4. Inequality of Opportunity: Experiences of Racialized and Minoritized Students.- 5. Symbiotic Relationship Between Curriculum, Tyler Rationale, and EQAO Standardized Testing.- 6. EQAO Results and School Rankings.- 7. Understanding the Research Approach and the Data.- 8. Invisible Scars and Traumatizing Effects of Standardized Testing: Voices of Grade 3 Children, Parents, and Educators.- 9. External Assessment as Stereotyping.- 10. Decolonizing Educational Assessment Models.
About the author
Ardavan Eizadirad holds a Ph D from the Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto, Canada. He is an educator with the Toronto District School Board and a community activist with non-profit organizations Youth Association for Academics, Athletics, and Character Education in the Jane and Finch community and Amadeusz in Toronto, Canada.