The challenge of maintaining the integrity of reform mathematics in large-scale assessment

The Multiple‐Use of Accountability Assessments: Implications for the Process of Validation

“…In addition, EQAO is careful to specify that those curriculum expectations that require mathematical investigations are not evaluated on the assessment (EQAO, ). Externally gathered evidence of the alignment of the EQAO Grade 9 assessment with the curriculum is provided by Suurtamm, Lawson, and Koch (), who conducted their own mapping of items on the assessment to the curriculum expectations. Their study confirms that the items on the EQAO Grade 9 assessment align with the content expectations in the curriculum but that some of the mathematics process expectations in the curriculum document, such as investigation are not assessed on the Grade 9 assessment.…”

A Secondary School Teacher’s description of the process of determining report card grades

“…Most of these looked at factors associated with grading (e.g., class size, difficulty level of mathematics course, student ability, role of non-academic variables, semestering, and teacher beliefs) (Bonesronning, 2004;Cicmanec, 1999;Deeter, 2002;Howley, Kusimo, & Parrott, 2000;Resh, 2009). One research team in Ontario looked at the extent to which teachers practice new forms of grading in mathematics when all their students are required to take a mandated large-scale assessment (Suurtamm, 2004;Suurtamm, Koch, & Arden, 2010;Suurtamm, Lawson, & Koch, 2008 In many of these studies, grading was examined as a mediating factor (e.g., Trautwein, Lüdtke, March, Köller, & Baumert, 2006), or its concept was relatively loosely defined to include assessment and marking. Resh's (2009) study is perhaps the only one that explicitly looked at what rules or weighted combination of rules teachers applied in determining grade allocation to their students in mathematics, language arts, and sciences.…”

“…Whereas the OME promotes a mathematics curriculum that values professional judgement, the EQAO which assesses all grade 9 students across the province every year tends to adhere to the traditional, measurement approach to develop its assessments (Suurtamm et al 2008). As both the OME's and EQAO's given goals, objectives, and purposes are to directly impact teaching and learning, these often unintended, conflicting underlying assessment models become a significant source of dilemma for those teachers who believe in the visions of their educational contexts and who wish to assimilate their respective demands.…”