In her study on ​High Stakes Standardized Testing and Marginalized Youth,​ Laura-Lee

Kearns examines the impact of large-scale, standardized literacy testing on youth who have

failed the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) at least once. Kearns examines the

aims of the OSSLT, and determines how these promises contrast the youth voices in her study;

revealing the unintended negative effects standardized tests have on the well-being of the

students it is directly aimed to benefit.

The OSSLT has been produced and implemented by the Education Quality and

Accountability Office (EQAO) in hopes to, “hold educational systems accountable for producing

literate youth and better-equipped citizens” (Kearns 113). “Since the 2001-2002 school year, the

OSSLT has been administered to all grade ten students in... Ontario... [as] a mandatory

graduation requirement” (Kearns 113). One of the guiding principles of EQAO’s standardized

testing mandate is to increase equity in the educational system;

It is essential that the EQAO assessments be used to seek excellence and equity for every

student in the system. Doing so requires a willingness to analyze the data and determine

where inequities lie, within each school and each school district, and then to focus efforts

on those who are not mastering the foundational skills. Using results in this way...

will allow us to close the gap between those who are meeting the expectations of [the]

curriculum and [thriving, and] those who are not (Kearns 113).

The EQAO believes the data collected through the OSSLT will benefit society as a whole.

Further stipulating, the implementation of educational policies will benefit students themselves

and maintains that it “values the well-being of learners above all other interests” (Kearns 113).
 Given the fact that “Ontario’s Provincial Department of Education has only recently

implemented large-scale standardized testing, the voices of youth have not yet been adequately

represented in the area of large-scale, high-stakes standardized literacy testing” (Kearns 115).

Laura hopes to highlight these voices in her study; focusing on students who have failed the

OSSLT at least once. Data was collected through individual in-depth, semi-structured, qualitative

interviews. The interview process collected information on the participants' age, background,

race, likes/dislikes in school, etc. The first group consisted of eleven youth; mixed gender and

race, between the ages of fifteen and eighteen. All of the youth here, were taking college or

general stream classes, rather than academic. A second focus group was constructed, consisting

of students aged eighteen to nineteen years old. These students were all in the same English as a

second language class. “During the time of the interviews, all but one of the youth were

attending school regularly and on a full-time basis” (Kearns 116).

The study results confirm the discrepancy between the success of academic youth and the

success of applied, ESL, and ELD youth. Kearns leans heavily into the well-being of the students

and equity within the system, as they correlate the strongest and most relevant contrast between

the voices in her study, and the ‘aims’ of the OSSLT. Rather than contributing to the well-being

of learners, the OSSLT failure experienced by the youth in the study produces a division between

the students who passed and those who have failed. “Those who fail are named ‘illiterate’ and

are marginalized by a systemic practice that treats all students the same” (Kearns 123). The

excess stress on students caused by the test, may also negatively impact their chances of future

success. Many of the youth were worried about their long-term chances in their future being
affected by the failure of this graduation requirement. Students who have failed the test, are

considered “at risk”. Youth are also considered ‘at risk’ due to their class, race, ethnicity, gender

community circumstances, language, ability, and are at risk of not graduating high-school. The

EQAO expects students to be “able to achieve the same standard of excellence on standardized

tests” (Kearns 125). Yet, fail to realize “youth are different and differently located, and those

differences impact test-taking success or failure” (Kearns 125). “In Canada, approximately 70%

of the variation in student learning is not attributable to school factors but to student, family, and

community characteristics” (Kearns 115).

All of the youth that participated in the study brings forward a heavy concern on the

power and impact of high-stakes, large-scale standardized testing. Several youths doubted their

school success because they were not successful on a standardized test. The power of the test

results made most students feel as though they did not belong in courses they previously enjoyed,

and even caused some of them to question their school class placement. If the student then fails

the test for a second time, they are required to take a literacy aid class to graduate. According to

the students in the study, they did not find the literacy test or class beneficial; “they experienced

the test and course as ‘punitive’, as something to ‘get over’ and not as helpful as their ‘regular’

courses” (Kearns 121). Students preferred classroom literacy to standardized test literacy as their

sense of self was affirmed through student-teacher relationships. The youth in this study

perceived the EQAO assessments as inequitable and unhelpful to their learning or ‘well-being’.

Youth maintained that they were successful at the school curriculum that was appropriate to

them, either academic or applied (or ESL or special education)” (Kearns 122).
 Literacy testing can be frequently seen as an “alienated method of identity formation”

(Kearns 124). “In this study, the negative test results produced a new social identity for youth

that caused them to question” (Kearns 124) who they thought they were, and who they wanted to

be. The literacy test can be seen as an alienating force for some youth, “because it undermined

some of their positive identity-confirming experiences, and forced them to negotiate a negative

label” (Kearns 124). “Issues of class, race, ethnicity... school placement, postal code... and

failure is prominent in examining a student’s success of EQAO’s OSSLT” (Kearns 126). These

results coincide with the “consistently identified economic factors as having a positive or

negative impact on student achievement” (Kearns 115) founded by educational researchers.

The youth voices in the study “help elucidate how the standardized testing policy is lived

and experienced by youth who fail the OSSLT” (Kearns 126). In contrast to the EQAO’s

mandate, “which stipulates that the OSSLT works towards the well-being of all learners and

helps youth thrive and contribute to an equitable education system” (Kearns 126); the youth

voices in the study point to some different outcomes. Other than the constant negative effects

failing the test imposes on the youths’ future school successes, these youth have also experienced

“various levels of shame, humiliation, embarrassment, and/or degradation” (Kearns 126). The

prolonged stress associated with the OSSLT-especially after failing- can cause adverse health

effects on the students. Thus, further affecting their overall well-being and success. Although the

study only focuses on sixteen individuals, it is clear to see marginalized youth fail more.
 “Overall, these findings entreat us to listen to the voices of youth and to consider the

impact of high-stakes standardized testing policy” (Kearns 127), taking into consideration the

complex social, political, gendered, racial, and economic factors that contribute to one’s

particular situation. Taking into account the youth voices in Laura Kearns’ study, and the

uprising negative statistics standardized testing has on the well-being of the students and equity

within the education system (or lack thereof), it is necessary to rethink approaches to

marginalized youth and even the purpose of high-stakes, large-scale standardized testing as a

whole.
 References

Kearns, Laura-Lee. “​High-Stakes Standardized Testing and Marginalized Youth: An Examination

of the Impact on Those who Fail.”​ Handout. Laurentian University. Sudbury, ON. n.d. Print.