Over the years educational assessment in British Columbia
has served many purposes in addition to recording student
progress. Initially it helped provide evidence that the novel
idea of a publicly funded school system was a worthwhile
financial and social investment. As schooling expanded so did
public examinations, ensuring that content and standards were
consistent throughout the province. Between the wars educational
priorities dominated assessment, as reformers challenged the
validity of traditional testing and the popularity of
large-scale assessment and mental testing increased. Recently
schooling has become more politicized, and the purposes and
methods of assessment have become subjects of public debate,
often reflecting the priorities and philosophies of the
government in power. Current attitudes to formal assessment
appear to be determined by a combination of the factors that
have influenced it over the years, and what started as a fairly
straightforward concept has become increasingly complex and
controversial.
This article explores the implementation of the Young Offenders Act in the most populous of Canada's ten provinces, Ontario. It argues that the original principles and programmes upon which the Act was based were not followed when the legislation was introduced. Research has demonstrated that rather than adopting alternative measures approaches which emphasise the special needs of delinquents, the approach is increasingly one of imprisonment. Increasing levels of investment in the carceral response has meant that community programming has not been implemented in any meaningful way. The Community Options Programme is described as a direction for future treatment of youth under the law. It is suggested that collaboration between social control agencies to co‐ordinate approaches is long overdue. The economies of community based responses on both the economic and human level are suggested.
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