With the teachers' unions and province yet to reach new contract agreements, standardized testing is now being affected.
Yesterday, Minister of Education Stephen Lecce said in a statement that local school boards would decide if the provincial EQAO Grade 9 math assessment, scheduled to start next week, is offered.
In a letter to families the public school board, District School Board Ontario North East (DSB1), said it won't be participating in EQAO Grade 9 math assessments.
The Northeastern District Catholic School Board (NCDSB) is still looking at alternatives to administer the test. Community relations officer Andrew Marks said a decision will be made in the next 24 hours or so.
For schools not administering the test, students will have to take the test during the June 2020 administration period.
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) started job action across the province in November.
At DSB1, the OSSTF represents high school teachers, attendance counselors, child and youth workers, early childhood educators, educational assistants, social workers and Indigenous student advisors.
Members are not doing standardized testing or prep, completing Ministry of Education Data Reports, participating in school board professional activities, taking part in unpaid staff meetings outside the regular school day, commenting on report cards, or performing work of another bargaining unit.
Because of labour action, DSB1 said in its letter that teachers and education workers aren't taking part in preparing and administering the EQAO assessments.
"These labour sanctions would make it challenging to manage the supervision of the test as well as implement the accommodations that many students require to be successful on the test. These accommodations include scribing, the reading of questions and access to specialized versions of the test material. In DSB1 schools, access to these accommodations is provided by both teachers and educational workers," reads the letter.
"Teachers will continue to work through the completion of the Grade 9 math curriculum as semester one comes to an end. Historically, students' performance on the EQAO Grade 9 Math Assessment has been included as part of their overall mark in the course in many of our schools. Given that this will not be possible this semester, teachers will weigh all evidence of student achievement and will use their professional judgment to determine the student's report card grade."
At NCDSB, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association is now in a legal strike position as well.
This week, its members announced it will be taking administrative job action is an agreement isn't reached by Monday, Jan. 13.
