An Opportune Time for Education Change

Newfoundland and Labrador English School District

An Opportune Time for Education Change in NL: A Public Discussion

In early 2020 as the Novel Coronavirus began to impact Canada, schools in Newfoundland and Labrador saw a widespread shut down, impacting on the ability of educators to instruct students throughout the K-12 system, as well as those within the public and private post-secondary institutions throughout the province. This caused the Department of Education to suspend public exams for high school students who were not able to resume their studies in the 2019-20 school year.

As the 2021-22 school year began, schools operated with enhanced public health guidelines but were still facing the potential of having to pivot to alternate forms of program delivery because of the ongoing threat of Covid-19. With select regional outbreaks and school closures, and a large-scale adjustment to online learning for a portion of the St. John's Metro region in February, 2021, the Department of Education again suspended the planned public exams for high school students throughout the province.

In consultation with experts within its operational Programs Division, the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District prepared a position paper for consideration on the value of high stakes testing, which is a much-discussed issue throughout the country. The District Paper uses modern, up-to-date research, exemplars, and data to reach its conclusion and authors welcome discussion and debate from colleagues, leaders, and educational stakeholders.

Once developed, the paper was released publicly and shared with other educational partners throughout the province. The Paper, An Opportune Time for Education Change in Newfoundland and Labrador, is available below, as are the unedited responses of other educational experts and partners throughout the public system that have been actively shared with the District.