Ontario high school students look smarter on paper than they really are

Grade inflation is distorting Ontario high school grades

If Ontario students want to get into the university program of their choice, they had better have really high report card marks.

That’s because the latest data from the Council of Ontario Universities (COU) shows that typical entry averages for high school students range from 84.4 to 92.9 per cent. Interestingly, average high school marks have risen steadily over the last 15 years.

This leads to an obvious question: Why are Ontario students now receiving much higher marks on their report cards?

One possibility is that Ontario students are becoming more academically proficient as the years go by. The problem with this theory is that it doesn’t jibe with what we see on standardized test scores. On the latest assessment from the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO), only 58 per cent of Grade 9 students met the provincial standard, which is not very high. This hardly sounds like an improvement.

More concerning, results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) show that the math skills of Ontario students declined by 35 points over the last 20 years. To put this fact into perspective, PISA equates 20 points with approximately one grade level. So, Ontario students are nearly two full grade levels behind in math now than they were 20 years ago.

Thus, it’s odd that high school report card marks would be going up while actual academic achievement on standardized exams is going down. Based on the available data, we can confidently state that Ontario students are not getting higher marks because their academic skills are improving.

This means that the high marks on Ontario high school report cards are likely the result of grade inflation. Teachers are under pressure to help students get into the postsecondary institutions of their choice, and this encourages them to inflate their students’ report card marks.

Unfortunately, grade inflation is likely to continue until the Ontario government takes decisive action. What teachers need is a measurement tool that cannot be manipulated or adjusted based on student requests or parental demands.

The solution can be found in Alberta. For the last few decades, Grade 12 students in that province have written diploma exams in most of their academic courses. These exams are created by the provincial education department and are marked anonymously by qualified teachers. Currently, diploma exams count for 30 per cent of a student’s final Grade 12 grades, while the classroom mark from the teacher makes up the remaining 70 per cent.

The benefits of diploma exams are obvious. Instead of relying entirely on teachers to assign marks, a significant portion of a student’s final grade comes from an objective tool that cannot be adjusted arbitrarily by teachers. This means that even if teachers inflate their students’ classroom marks, the diploma grades will act as a counterbalance by bringing these marks back to reality. This will be especially helpful if the two marks are reported separately and then combined for a final grade.

In addition, diploma exams serve as an important reminder to teachers to cover the full provincial curriculum in the courses they teach. Since diploma exams assess all curriculum outcomes, teachers do not have the luxury of picking and choosing the topics in the curriculum that they cover. It also means that teachers cannot avoid topics they would prefer not to teach.

Of course, Alberta’s diploma exams are not perfect. One significant weakness is that they make up only 30 per cent of the final course mark. Prior to 2015, these exams were worth 50 per cent of the final grade. It’s unfortunate that these exams have been downgraded in value over the years.

Nevertheless, the fact that Alberta requires its Grade 12 students to write diploma exams gives that province a significant edge over provinces like Ontario where Grade 12 students’ course marks are determined entirely by the classroom teachers. Until Ontario takes concrete steps to fix this problem, grade inflation will almost certainly continue.

Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra has said that he wants to take drastic action to improve Ontario schools. Introducing Grade 12 diploma exams similar to what currently happens in Alberta would be a significant step forward for public education in Ontario.

Michael Zwaagstra is a senior fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.