Administration of EQAO: February 25 to March 8, 2019.
In the SDC you need to list any student requiring permitted accommodations. You will be able to change and update this later, from March 18- June 7.
There are a few new things:
- For the mathematics section, students can use virtual manipulatives that are not instructional in nature, such as mathies.com. Please remember that students must choose to use manipulatives and this should be regular practice. Students who choose virtual manipulatives should be used to using them throughout the year. Regular hands-on manipulatives should also be available.
- Students who regularly use white noise or music during an assessment may do so.
- Teachers may leave up anything on walls that is not instructional in nature. See p. 12 of the attached guide and the attached Guidelines for Classroom Displays.
This was new last year (and is confusing to understand in the guide on p. 26):
- ELL students who are in the early stages/steps of English acquisition (ELD steps 1-4 or ESL steps 1-3) have access to any of the permitted accommodations that are available to all students, and those available to special education students, as long as they have been using them regularly throughout the year. This includes Google Read and Write. They do not need an IEP. You must include this information in the SDC.
- You can also exempt ELL students if they do not have a level of English that is sufficient enough for them to be successful on the assessment (p. 26). Exempting students does not adversely affect your published EQAO results. It does affect your participating results.
Students with special education needs are permitted accommodations listed on pg. 21-24 of the guide. All accommodations must be indicated in the SDC. Students must have them listed on their IEP and must be using them on a regular basis in the classroom for assessment tasks.
All special versions (e.g. Word) of the assessment can be downloaded by the school on May 15 except Google Read and Write. As in past years we download it centrally and then share it electronically with schools. Instructions about using Google Read and Write for the EQAO assessments will be available later through your SERT. We will offer an after school session in early May as well. Please watch for more information. With regards to Google Read and Write:
- It is required to be on a student’s IEP and used regularly (or used regularly for an early stage ELL student without an IEP).
- Students need to be very comfortable with the program in order to be successful. They should be using it regularly throughout the year.
- Unless a student is using Equatio in math in Google Read and Write, we do not suggest a student use Google Read and Write for the mathematics portion of the assessment. I will be asking later if you have any students who typically use Google Read and Write for mathematics and determine if it will be offered this year.
When scheduling your EQAO assessments, you must ensure that teachers get their regularly scheduled planning periods, including SERTs. For example, if the EQAO assessment is periods 1, 2 and 3 and a teacher has planning period 2, it is fine for the planning time teacher to come in and supervise the assessment. The planning time teacher must have been given the guide and met about the duties required therein. If it were possible to move the period 2 planning period, to period 4, for example, and that was mutually agreeable to all teachers, you can do that. Do not cancel a planning period one day to pay back later in the week.
You do not need all your students to write at exactly the same time. For example, you might have one class of grade 3s write periods 2 and 3 and another class write periods 5 and 6. While most schools tend to have students complete the 6 hours over the course of 3 days, you can spread it out longer. Each booklet requires 1 hour and should be done in one continuous sitting. Students who require extra time must not be interrupted by nutrition break.
Ontario Teachers' Blog 
Pingback: eqao sdc – My Blog