Grade 12 marks rising in Ottawa area's French boards
Slight uptick during pandemic bucks trend seen across North America, education expert says
While school boards in jurisdictions across North America have reported grades dropping during the pandemic, average marks for Grade 12 students in two Ottawa-area French boards rose slightly during the first quadmester of this unusual school year.
The French public board, the Conseil des écoles publiques de l'Est de l'Ontario (CEPEO), saw marks rise from an average of 76.64 per cent across all Grade 12 subjects two years ago, to 80.04 per cent at the end of the first quadmester.
Ottawa's French Catholic board, the Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est (CECCE), saw a similar rise, from an average of 77 per cent two years ago to 79 per cent at the end of the first quadmester.
CBC Ottawa requested the average Grade 12 marks in all subjects, as well as average marks in key subject areas such as math, English and French, from all four Ottawa school boards after the end of the first quadmester.
The English boards said they were unable to provide CBC with the data. Only the CEPEO was able to provide a full breakdown including average marks in French, math, biology and history.
Why are marks rising?
A CBC questionnaire distributed to teachers last fall revealed their concerns that academic performance would suffer during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some shared anecdotal evidence that students' grades were dropping as they adjusted to online learning, reduced class time, and compressed quadmester or octomester schedules.
Joel Westheimer, research chair in democracy and education at the University of Ottawa, said data collected in the United States shows academic achievement has plummeted since COVID-19 began, with the gap between high-achieving and low-achieving students widening "dramatically."
According to Westheimer, while the Grade 12 data from Ottawa's French boards is "thin" and based only on one quadmester's results, it could indicate that those teachers are being more accommodating this year — a move he applauds.
"The French boards are doing what probably makes sense to a lot of people, which is adjusting their expectations to the situation and not putting students' future lives at risk because they happen to be unlucky enough to be in a particular grade at this particular moment in history," Westheimer said.
Megan Mathieu, a Grade 12 student at Le Sommet in Hawkesbury, Ont., a school in the area's French public board, said her grades have risen slightly this year.
"For all of my friends and myself, it's easier to do it online right now," Mathieu said.
She said some teachers may be more lenient, but the pace of online learning also suits her better. "The fact that I'm at home and I have the time to do it at my speed … I think that makes it easier for me to do my work."
In a statement, the CEPEO did not address why its Grade 12 marks were slightly higher, but noted this school year's modified learning environment and said it's "determined to continue to provide a caring school environment that promotes the personal and academic development of each learner."
The Ottawa Catholic School Board (OCSB) said it won't have comparison data available until after the third quadmester begins in February. The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) said it does not collate average mark data by course, but would release reports on credit accumulation and achievement rates in the coming months.
'Significant mark drop' in some boards
Harvey Bischof, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, said preliminary data from a few boards outside the Ottawa area show cause for concern.
"It's suggestive more than it is really sort of determinative at this point, but it shows significant mark drops, and also significantly increased failure rates for those who are learning entirely remotely," he said.
Bischof would not share the early data with CBC, but said "it certainly implies significant trends."
"School boards across Canada should be paying attention to this in great detail," Westheimer said. That's especially true when it comes to students about to graduate, because unlike the United States, university and college admission here is based almost entirely on grades.
"A global crisis like the pandemic that artificially suppresses those grades — not for everyone, but only for certain groups of children — is of huge concern and is extremely important to look into," Westheimer said.
