The public school system has been doing reading, writing, and arithmetic testing on Grade 3 students for the past three years. They have also been testing Grade 6 students for the past two years. Although these tests do not result in a pass or fail, each individual student gets evaluated and a level is assigned from their tests results. This level helps teacher, students, and parents tell where the child stands compared to where they should be. It also helps to assist the process of improvement for all the children who scored low.
Parsons says that the secondary school's are going to have to start a similar process.
A group consisting of parents, and teachers will evaluate the results from the testing and decide which plan of action is appropriate. Parsons says she believes a few things have triggered the recent decision about testing. There is a major interest of increased accountability - making someone responsible for what's going on in the schools. There is also a belief by the Ministry of Education that we need to constantly improve on programs and practices. She continues on the say the it is the responsibility of all the teachers in every department in the school to teach the children well.