When I watch this Alberta Government issued 10 minute streaming video that attempts to explain to parents why Provincial Achievement Tests are needed, I am disturbed by how misleading and inaccurate this piece of propaganda really is. Here are but a few points:
- That parents would ever feel the need to discuss Provincial Achievement Testing instead of real learning only goes to show how truly distracting these tests really are.
- The Alberta Teachers' Association is openly and actively opposed to Provincial Achievement Tests in their current form and support reducing Diploma Exams to no more than 20% of a student's final grade.
- When the video says "What you need to know" it should really say "What the government would like you to believe."
- The video states that children in grade 3,6 and 9 are expected to write Provincial Achievement Tests. What the government doesn't state is that it is actually the parents' democratic right to exempt their children from such examinations.
- I have no idea how a norm-referenced, standardized exam can be justified because Alberta has a diverse population? Wouldn't diversity require non-standardized measurements?
- The video says "PATs are an effective way to find out whether or not a child is learning what he or she is expected to learn." Two points here: Firstly, PATs are an effective way of measuring the affluence of a school's population, but that's about it. Secondly, it is widely accepted that a great deal of the provincial curriculum cannot be assessed by a paper and pencil test. For example, in grade 9 science only 63 of 200 (32%) learner outcomes can be assessed by Provincial Achievement Tests.
- The video claims that PATs provide teachers with "valuable" information about their student learning when the truth is the best teachers know how this one-time, multiple-choice test pales in comparison to the information and observations teachers collect about students while they are learning through out the entire year.
- If students should never feel rushed to finish the test, why is there any time limit provided at all?
- If teachers are in "charge" of making up so many of these tests, why is it that a question that "too many" students score correctly is removed from the test?
- If students are not suppose to ever be stressed about these tests, why does the government condone the use of these PATs as a part of the students' report card?
