Leading the
EQAO CEO wants to ensure assessments remain relevant and useful for schools By Peggy Sweeney Photography by Stef + Ethan In August 2017, Norah Marsh was appointed as the CEO of the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO). The agency creates and administers large-scale assessments to measure Ontario students’ achievement in reading, writing and math in grades 3, 6, 9 and 10. The assessments evaluate student achievement in relation to a common provincial standard. While governments have argued that the agency is essential to ensure transparency and accountability in the sector, the assessments have been criticized by educators, students and parents, who consider them time-consuming, costly and unnecessary. Why would anyone want to lead such a controversial agency?
8 Summer 2019
