February 22, 2005
Concordia University, Montreal
Recent Research
and Background
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Providing Critical Supports for Successful Learning
B. Performance Assessment
Performance Measurement
While acknowledging the value of other important measures, there is a well-defined link between
the use of assessment data and student performance. Those provinces that conduct student
assessments and require their use in school improvement planning have documented the strongest
gains in Aboriginal student attainment. Band-operated schools are not presently required to
participate in provincial assessment programs and although DIAND has been deemed accountable
for an equivalent quality of education in federally funded schools, there is no effective national
process in place to evaluate the education that Aboriginal students are receiving or ensure its
quality (Auditor General's Report, 2002; Minister's Working Group Final Report, 2002).
Some Aboriginal education authorities have been reluctant to require their schools and students
to participate in provincial assessment programs or to use standardized tests. In some cases this
may be seen as a surrender of hard-won control over their education. Other concerns include the
possible cultural bias of tests developed for a different socio-cultural group and the possible unfair
comparison of band-operated and provincial schools that might result. Keith Spencer, the First
Nations researcher who authored the case study on Chalo School in this volume expresses this
concern particularly well.
"Further, at the international level, a draft declaration on indigenous rights declares
Aboriginal People have a right to educate their children into their own culture.
Consequently, the concept of comparing band and public schools is fundamentally flawed;
unreliable at best, and at worst, would narrow discussion on Aboriginal education to the
goals and priorities of the public school model agenda."
Nevertheless, there are benefits that may justify the use of standardized assessments. As Chief
Nathan Matthew noted, comparisons using a common standard of measurement can provide
educators with good information on which to base their decisions, indicate current shortfalls in
achievement that allow Aboriginal education authorities to carry on informed dialogues about
what to do to rectify the situation, and enable them to work strategically with other levels of
governments and service providers to increase the prospects of success.[8]
From the earliest days of contact, Aboriginal parents have had the deeply held desire for education
that would equip their children to reap the benefits of the knowledge and technologies of the
Euro-Canadian society; however, they have maintained a parallel desire to preserve their own ways
of knowing, cultural traditions and heritage. For Aboriginal students, education is not an "either
or" proposition, but a "yes and" situation.
In our time, a sound foundation in academic skills leading to high school graduation and postsecondary
education or training has become the main route leading to economic prosperity for
all people living in Canada.[9] Aboriginal people who desire to participate in employment
opportunities within the Canadian economy must demonstrate the same standards of educational
attainment as any other citizen, and it would be an injustice if they should be handicapped because
they did not receive an education of equivalent quality to that available to other Canadians. At the
same time, Aboriginal people can bring uniqueness and diversity through understanding and
being skilled in their traditional ways of knowing and thinking, their cultures and their traditions
that have the potential to immeasurably enrich Canadian society. It would therefore seem that
schools serving Aboriginal students could best do so by incorporating both the standard tools of
assessment that are associated with improved educational performance and a guarantee of quality
in provincial education systems while working to further develop and improve the more holistic
strategies for assessment[10] that are appropriate to Aboriginal traditions and culture.
The uses of assessment made by the set of schools in this study fall into three broad categories;
internal, accountability reporting, and communicating.
Internally, all schools in the set made a primary use of assessments for instructional purposes that
included; measuring the degree of student learning and the effectiveness of classroom instruction,
grouping and regrouping students for instructional purposes, and to diagnose specific learning
difficulties and to identify of students who were at risk or struggling to master specific subject
areas. Teacher-designed tests, commercial measurements, and built-in program evaluations were
the tools most often used for these purposes. Some elementary schools tracked their students
through transitions to high schools, noting areas of success and weakness. In addition to improving
classroom instruction and grade-to-grade transitions, some schools utilized the data collected to
set annual improvement goals, to set budgets, allocate resources, and determine staffing
requirements and the need for special programs. In a few cases, assessment data was utilized as the
basis of strategic planning, designed to improve long-range success.
For reporting purposes, assessment results were conveyed by the schools to students, parents, to
local or provincial educational authorities, and, in some cases, to the public. Students receive
feedback about their progress through teacher comments, test grades, more structured interviews
with teachers, counsellors, and administrators, and through metacognition in which students are
able to track their own progress through pre-determined levels of mastery. Regular formal progress
reports to parents are required by all education authorities and schools use their internal assessment
data to provide information which may be conveyed by written reports (usually, interim and term),
parent-teacher conferences (sometimes involving students), and portfolios of student's work.
Reports to educational authorities, in particular, those to school districts and provincial ministries
of education, frequently require results of normed or standardized assessments that may be
provincially designed or commercially produced.12 Although band-operated schools are not
required to participate in these evaluations, two schools in the set, Chalo and Peguis, have chosen
to do so and have found these assessments useful for internal purposes. Other schools report
making increased use of provincial assessment data in setting goals for improvement and providing
an enlarged framework of comparison in their reporting processes to both students and parents.
The availability of standardized data is an invaluable tool for schools in communicating their
specific needs to educational authorities, governing bodies, parents and public. Chief Nathan
Matthew, a well known advocate of assessment and disclosure in his efforts to improve Aboriginal
education in British Columbia comments:
"I believe educators should base their decisions on policy and practice on good information.
When various measures of progress in schools are taken, it is obvious that First Nations
learners are not achieving at the same levels as the general school population. Initially
school districts and the provincial government did not want to publish these discrepancies.
I had the feeling there was an attitude of 'You really don't want to know.'
"In my local school district we insisted that we be shown the details of the results. Only by
knowing the extent of the "gap" in various areas could we carry on a sensible dialogue as
to what we could do about the situation. We were able to separate the First Nations
education results and have used these results to work strategically with the school district
toward improvement. The same is true at the provincial level. We now have province-wide
data on Aboriginal student achievement and work with the Ministry of Education to
increase success."
While all schools use informal classroom assessments to guide instruction, the use of standardized
measures to compare school and student performance against normed standards of achievement
and track the progress of students/school over time was mixed. This roughly corresponded with
the provincial framework for assessment and accountability. There were sharp differences in the
use of standardized achievement data or other performance indicators such as drop-out rates,
especially with respect to public reporting. In some cases, the school authority placed more
importance on performance data than did the school.[12] Alberta, British Columbia, and Manitoba require such assessments.
8. See Assessment, Chapter 13.
9. See Richards & Vining (April 2004) pp. 1-7
10. See N.Matthew & B. Kavanagh, Meeting our expectations: Considering a framework for the assessment of First Nations schools. FNESC Discussion paper, June 1999.
12. Alberta, British Columbia, and Manitoba require such assessments.
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