Seven Oaks School Division keeps test results under wraps

Critics say parents have a right to know

The Seven Oaks School Division has never released its results on provincial standardized tests, and is unlikely to ever do so, says Supt. Brian O’Leary.

“We feel that information is best used internally,” said O’Leary.

In Winnipeg, only River East-Transcona School Division has published its results from the most recent testing, despite falling below the provincial average in most areas.

All Manitoba students in grades 3 and 12 are tested in language arts and math.

The chair of the school division’s board of trustees, Bill McGowan, says there’s little chance the results will ever be released since the division is fundamentally opposed to standardized testing.

“We see it as a pretty limited way of looking at the child,” said McGowan. “We would rather have a conversation between the parents and the kids and the teacher. We think that’s a far better way of communicating what’s going on with the child.”

McGowan says if the test results show Seven Oaks to be lagging behind the rest of the province in a particular area, the board of trustees would want an explanation from administrators. But he considers other statistics, such as graduation rates and the percentage of students who go on to post-secondary studies, to be more important.

In June 2007, the provincial average for English language arts was 64.2 per cent; in applied mathematics it was 64.2 per cent; in pre-calculus math it was 67.9.

Ron Schuler, the Progressive Conservative education critic, says his party is in favour of the tests, and in providing parents with more information.

“Parents should be able to see their children’s rankings, or at least know how their children performed,” said Schuler. “I’m a little uneasy if we start comparing division to division.”

Rodney Clifton, a professor in the University of Manitoba’s faculty of educational administration and psychology, suggests that the Province should withhold school divisions’ capital funding if they don’t release test results.

“Unfortunately parents aren’t as mobilized as I thought they would be. They get thwarted at every turn,” said Clifton.

Calls to the Manitoba Teachers’ Society for comment were not returned.

– With files from Trish Hogue and Matthew Wright