The Superintendent for the Seine River School Division says publishing grade 12 provincial exam results can be a useful tool but only if used properly.

Mike Borgfjord notes the question they often ask is ‘how do we use this information to be more efficient and spend time where we need to spend time?’ 

Borgfjord says there are positives that can come out of using these results but he says the biggest thing is that they want their staff to collaborate more as opposed to competing with each other. He says ideally, they want their professionals to learn from each other and figure out how to help more kids access higher level thinking across all subject areas.

"There’s multiple other pieces of information that we use to determine how successful we are, how successful we are with kids and I think it’s just a small piece of a bigger picture so it can be misinterpreted and misused as an evaluation tool. That being said, I would never want to be defensive and discount. We use the information to ask more questions and delve in it more deeply," says Borgfjord. 

He adds one positive about grade 12 standardized testing is it gives everyone a starting point as opposed to multiple opinions so at least there is a standard to base off of as they look at ways to improve. Borgfjord says there is always a way to become more efficient and to improve. 

"We’ve got school teams looking at data and making goals for the year, how are they going to take steps for the variety of kids in their schools. It all depends on how people are using the information I think it raises good questions. I’m not against it, I’m not for it. If it’s used well it can be a good thing."

Borgfjord notes, looking at the bigger picture, Canada is third in the world in reading and fifth in science so he says the differences from province to province or even division to division are quite small.