This section provides general information about the Assessments of Reading, Writing and Mathematics, Primary and Junior Divisions.
Administration Dates
For the 2022–2023 school year, the administration dates for the Assessments of Reading, Writing and Mathematics, Primary and Junior Divisions are Wednesday, May 10, to Wednesday, June 14, 2023.
Students who are learning in person will participate in the assessments. Students who are learning remotely and wish to participate in the assessments can, at the discretion of the school board, attend in person for the purpose of participating in the assessments.
EQAO will send a memo with dates when boards should upload student data prior to the administration dates. This data will need verification in the e-assessment system. School administrators and teachers have steps to complete prior to, during and after the administration of the assessments.
Please ensure all steps outlined in the section After the Administration of the Assessment are completed within two school days following the end of the administration but no later than June 14, 2023.
Purpose of the Assessments
EQAO’s Assessments of Reading, Writing and Mathematics, Primary and Junior Divisions are curriculum-based standards-referenced large-scale assessments. They measure student learning of the knowledge and skills that are defined in the expectations in The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1–8: Language (2006) and The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1–8: Mathematics (2020). For more details on the assessments, please see the primary and the junior Framework documents.
Assessment of Reading, Writing and Mathematics, Primary Division Framework, 2022
Assessment of Reading, Writing and Mathematics, Junior Division Framework, 2022
Primary- and Junior-Division Assessment Design
Design of the Language and Mathematics Components of the Primary- and Junior-Division Assessments
The language component of the primary- and junior-division assessments use a testlet-based linear on-the-fly (tLOFT) design, and the mathematics components use a multi-stage computer adaptive testing model that adjusts to the individual student’s performance as the student progresses through the stages. Refer to the Framework documents linked above for more information.
Duration of Assessment Sessions
The table below illustrates the suggested allotted time for each session and stage of the assessments. Additional time can be provided to all students.
Note: Grade 3 and Grade 6 students do not have to complete the assessments at the same time. Teachers can schedule groups of students or individual students in the same class to complete the assessment at different times during the administration dates.
The sessions for language and the stages for mathematics must be completed in the order in which they are presented, and each session or stage must be completed in one continuous sitting.
Note: Supervised breaks are permitted during an assessment session or stage, and these may include water, stretch and washroom breaks.
The sessions for the language component and the stages for the mathematics component can be completed interchangeably (e.g., Language Session A, Mathematics Stage 1; Language Session B, Mathematics Stage 2).
Below are two sample schedules showing the ways the assessments may be organized.
