[Note: see the October 5 entry "Examining Change – Changing Exams" for more information on the change to the exam format. The revised exam schedule that moves chemistry and math to different days is available here.]

Mrs. McQueen: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Education announced that the grade 12 diploma exams in math and science will no longer include a written response but will only include multiple choice numeric responses. Given that the Minister of Education has talked many times about the importance of our students developing literacy and communication skills, why would he dumb down the exams by removing the section that tests these essential abilities?

Mr. Hancock: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, a context, I think, is necessary. Over the last number of months, over a year that I've been in the portfolio, I've certainly heard from students, from teachers, from school boards that we have too many exams, it takes too long, and it's too much exam anxiety on the students: too much, too much, too much. When we looked at what we could do differently, we determined that the correlation between the part A and the part B, the written and the multiple choice and numeric portions of the exams in maths and sciences, was extremely high. In other words, students were doing as well on the part A as they were on the part B. If you're looking for an exit result, which is what the diploma exams are, and you're getting the same mark on both exams, one of them is redundant. So reducing the number of exams for students, reducing the time frame for exams answers the questions that I have been asked.

Mrs. McQueen: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The teachers that I've spoken with say that multiple choice questions cannot properly assess all of students' abilities or allow them to show their thinking processes. How does the minister expect our students to be fairly assessed if the diploma exams don't reflect all of what they are learning in the classroom?

Mr. Hancock: Mr. Speaker, while teachers in the classroom are really pivotal and key to student assessment, obviously, as part of learning, we do have very strong assessment expertise in the Department of Education working with teachers from across the province to design valid and reliable questions. Multiple choice and numeric questions are valid and reliable. They test not only knowledge but comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Most of our questions are at the application and analysis level while some are at the synthesis and comprehension level. In other words, it's not just testing and regurgitation of facts, and you can't succeed by guessing.

Mrs. McQueen: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final question to the same minister. In addition to changing the format of the math and science exams, the Department of Education changed the exam calendar so that students were to write math and chemistry, two very challenging tests, on the same day. It is my understanding that this has been changed. Can you clarify this and how you'll let staff, parents, and students know, and can you ensure that this will not happen again in June?

Mr. Hancock: Mr. Speaker, we have sent out a revised exam schedule for both January and June to all jurisdictions. It'll be communicated in the same way that the original exam schedule was, through the classroom to the students immediately. It's also on our website.

I think what happened is that when we looked at how we could shorten the amount of time taken for exams and return more time to the classroom and less stress on the students in writing exams, we got a little bit overexuberant in that, perhaps, and that resulted in the doubling up of the chem and math on one day. We've changed that. They'll be written on separate days. We've responded to that concern that's come in from students across the province and also to the concern about exams being written on the 28th and 29th of June. We've backed that schedule up. The new schedule is out. Schools should have it as of yesterday, and it's on the website.