If only….........One of the bonuses, would be pressure exerted at the elementary levels, that in my opinion, causes most of the problems for the high schools. The difficulties to make students college-ready, when there is so much to do to bring students up to a decent level in the 3 Rs.

Amazing what happens when the administration of a high school, takes a real interest in the grading, and preparation of students at the elementary school level. I am not well-liked by the local elementary school, but it was well worth it, urging the high school to look at my child’s education through the lens of being prepared from one grade to the next. It was determined by the high school, it was obvious that my child needed help from day one when it came to the 3 Rs, and the records and data clearly shows it, and the school did little to advance her levels in the 3 Rs. Out of that exploration, the high school determined that approximately 60 percent of students entering high school, are weak in all or some aspects in the 3 Rs.

Having public exams in place, made it all that more urgent to ensure all students have fair to good levels in the 3 Rs, not only to pass the public exams, but as well to ensure admittance by the post secondary institutes. Public exams are worth 50 percent of the final grade, and are graded to include grammar, spelling, and the actual writing express in clear understandable language.

If the high school exit exams were in place in Ontario, I bet the high schools would exert their own power and influence at the elementary level, so students entering high school are prepared to do high school work.

The evidence for Nancy’s assertion does not exist. The two worlds operated then and now as separate entities in Ontario, unfortunately in my view.
What would happen if the EQAO tests were moved out of grade 3 and 6
and put into grades 4 and 8 and the results passed along to the high school?

BC just ditched their exit exams and while exit exams in Ontario have been on the table for a couple of decades they are not brought in due to the $$$$

Public exams and/or exit exams are not standardized testing. If one wants to have a grade 12 diploma, one has to passed the public exams in the core subjects. High school teachers are highly motivated to teach the essentials skills needed to passed the public exams, for two reasons from what I can determined. The first reason, between the school board and the ministry, it would not look good for a school, to have over half of the students failing the public exams first time around. The second reason, is the responsibility to the students to ensure that the students do have the skills and knowledge that prepares them to write the public exams.

Standardized testing, no matter what grades does nothing to motivate teachers, and the rest of the adults within the system, to improve in their practices to prevent students from failing what is relatively easy testing, where no students need to have high knowledge, but they still need to have high levels of the 3 Rs to muster a pass. And they certainly are not the kind of standardized testing, that would urge improvements to ensure that each child has the knowledge to do the next grade level.  Of course these days, that is blame on the SEC factors, and never on the practices of the education system.

No doubt, if each and every high school, took the time to review each student entering grade 9, a huge percentage of students are not prepared to do high school work, due to the various levels of the 3 Rs that are weak, but are very essential to learning advance things, such as critiquing and analysis of an essay in English. And it is quite something to learned as a parent, my child is at the bottom of the 40 % who are prepared to learn advance knowledge at the high school level, despite her learning differences, but is also at the top of the 60 % who need effective targeted remediation in reading and writing. In the local high school, every student are getting targeted doses of remediation, along with teachers who are willing to work with the same students, for two years in a row. I can tell you one thing, the teachers certainly know the weaknesses and strengths of their students in the foundation of language and numeracy. It has made a real difference in the lives of students, as well as opening up the future doors, that were once close to them.

As for the EQAO and other like testing, the data hold values, only when the actions that are taken is timely, and are effective to raise achievement. Hard to do without having the hard copies of the testing, to see the evidence of weak skills in reading, writing and numeracy.

Lots of online examples from EQAO of test questions.
Nancy is right n\on that there is a difference between large-scale exit and standardized testing. Both “can” have value.
EQAO I agree would be MUCH more useful if teachers got the results in a timely fashion to help students with weak skills.