Grade 3 assessments for Island students may be paused for next year

Education minister Brad Trivers says P.E.I. may suspend math and literacy assessments for Grade 3 students for at least the next year.

Following Friday's legislative session,Trivers said resources used to administer the tests could instead go toward addressing issues like classroom composition.

"The question was what are you doing with that dataand do we really need to continue collecting data?" he said

He said the assessments have been a "hot topic" among teachers and parents.

"Really our focus is going to be on the front lines on the students and the teachers who are delivering learning to the students."

Now is a great time to take some of the data collected through the years and apply it in the classroom, Trivers said.

"Our inclination is to put at least the next Grade 3 assessment on hold."

Not the end of assessments

Trivers said the final decision hasn't beenmade, but it looks like there won't be an assessment for Island Grade 3 students next year. He said the suspension would not be permanent.

"We conducted the assessments for many years and we will conduct them in the future."

He said assessments are good for data collection and to get an idea of what is going on in Island classrooms.

He added the assessments are "just being put on hold" to make sure the data which was collected is being used and improvements are being made.

The PCs promised to reduce the frequency of common assessments during the recent P.E.I. election campaign.

However, officials with the Liberal party said the tests have been a valuable tool to improve the Island's education systemand should continue.

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