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Emerging Perspectives
ep.journalhosting.ucalgary.ca

HomeWork-School: Deconstructing Assessment, Fairness and Future Learning
in Ontario K-12 Spaces

Patt Olivieri*

University of Calgary

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed an array of inequities in education and called into
question the meaning of fairness within current grading systems. It provoked
Ontario educators to critically reflect and deconstruct practices in assessment for,
as, and of learning in K-12 digital spaces. Navigating the tension between students
engaging in homework and students learning from home sparked inquiry into
assessment practices. Educators soon faced an assessment dilemma: How might we
authentically triangulate student learning through observation, conversation and
products in online platforms? The boundaries were blurred regarding when, where
and how student work could be assessed fairly. The traditional focus on student
products, translated into letter and/or numerical grades, continues to dominate
discussions about measuring academic achievement since products, such as tests and
exams, are perceived as more reliable evidence than communication about learning
through observation and conversation. Existing inequities in the K-12 schooling
experience are at greater risk of being amplified in digital learning spaces where the
social nuance of observation and conversation becomes highly complex. This essay
critically analyzes assessment and evaluation policy in Ontario’s publicly funded
schools. Through examination of a policy in effect since 2010, initially designed for
in-person learning and e-learning contexts, this essay suggests that non-evaluative
protocols (i.e., assessment for and as learning) are fundamental in reshaping
equitable assessment practice for future learning.

Keywords: Assessment, Gradeless, Equity, Triangulation, Digital learning, Pedagogical
documentation, Ontario education policy

Patt, O. (2024). HomeWork-School: Deconstructing assessment, fairness and future
learning in Ontario K-12 spaces. Emerging Perspectives Special Edition: Designing for
Digital Futures, 7(1), 1–10.

Introduction

It is worth noting, right from the start, that assessment is a human process, conducted by and
with human beings, and subject inevitably to the frailties of human judgement. However crisp
and objective we might try to make it, and however neatly quantifiable may be our “results”,

*patt.olivieri@gmail.com



Olivieri / Emerging Perspectives (2024) 2

assessment is closer to an art than a science. It is, after all, an exercise in human
communication. (Sutton, 1991)

With the sudden onset of COVID-19, assessment and evaluation protocols for Ontario

K-12 schools were called into question, particularly how to grade fairly in digital spaces. In

early 2020, teachers grappled with the new realities of remote learning - learning that occurs

when classes are taught at a distance and when students and educators are not in a conventional

classroom setting (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2020) and the immense inequalities the

pandemic revealed about the lives of students and their families (Westheimer, 2022). It was vital

to consider the vast differences in students’ and families’ situations, as well as the fundamental

importance of supporting students’ health and well-being (People for Education, 2020). During

this time of uncertainty, the educational landscape broadened, specifically in the questioning of

what ‘counts’ as learning. With the implementation of de-streaming policy in Ontario secondary

schools in September 2021 (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2020), along with discussions about

going gradeless, grading-less and UNgrading (Blum, 2017), assessment discourse as an

equitable practice continues to take shape.

Assessment and evaluation in Ontario’s K-12 learning spaces is an iterative endeavour.

How one comes to know something, and how that knowing is to be communicated and evaluated

based on teachers’ professional judgment, is both multifaceted and nuanced. With the rise and

continuous changes in digital technology, educators are called to reflect on the complexities of

assessment by examining what the pandemic exposed about grading inequities and “raise an

eyebrow at grades as a systemic practice” (Stommel, 2021) by exploring other ways of knowing.

Background



Olivieri / Emerging Perspectives (2024) 3

The pandemic signalled an emergency response to assessment and evaluation in Ontario’s

schools. As staff and students faced an immediate halt to in-person learning and moved to

‘emergency remote learning, ’ questions emerged about formative assessment (assessment for

and as learning) and evaluation (assessment of learning). Students who were on the path to

graduation by June 2020, specifically those planning to attend postsecondary school in the fall,

were particularly in a state of flux as final grades related to admission requirements, scholarship,

etc., mattered. An underlying tension permeated between the ‘business as usual’ perspective

(i.e., how do we measure the ability of students to “perform” in a crisis?) and a critical stance

(i.e., what do we want grading to do (or not do) in our classes (for students or teachers)?

(Stommel, 2021).

The ongoing changes prompted ‘on the fly’ directives from the Ontario Ministry of

Education. After it was officially announced in May 2020 that schools would remain closed for

the remainder of the academic year, secondary school graduation requirements were altered

(Ontario Ministry of Education, 2020). This included a ‘freeze’ on students’ grades (as

determined by mid-March) but did not preclude a teacher from exercising their professional

judgement to grant a higher grade if there was evidence of improved learning (Ontario Ministry

of Education, 2020). Additionally, both the literacy and community service requirements were

waived (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2020). The intent was to recognize students' level of

achievement pre-pandemic, not penalize any student academically due to the unprecedented

conditions, nor jeopardize any student’s secondary or post-secondary plans moving forward. This

was an act of ‘emergency assessment’ in response to ‘emergency remote’ conditions.

Policy: Changes and Perspectives



Olivieri / Emerging Perspectives (2024) 4

‘Synchronous’ learning (learning that happens in real-time) and ‘asynchronous’ learning

(learning that is not delivered in real-time) soon became part of the daily education lexicon, and

by August 2020, these terms were officially defined through MOE policy (Ontario Ministry of

Education, 2020). Requirements for Remote Learning, Policy/Program Memorandum 164 (PPM

164) was issued in response to the ongoing uncertainty. This ‘new’ policy was to assist school

boards in navigating instruction and assessment for the upcoming school year and to provide

further direction on remote learning protocols (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2020). Regardless

of ‘location’, PPM 164 directed educators to adhere to the assessment protocols outlined in

Growing Success (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2010) and Growing Success: The Kindergarten

Addendum (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2016). The policy reiterated that evidence of student

achievement for evaluation was to be collected over time from three different sources and

teachers’ strategies for assessment should be triangulated to include observation, student-teacher

conversations, and student products (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2010). School closures

continued to fluctuate throughout the school year, and conditions for triangulating assessment

remained, at best, an ‘emergency response’ rather than authentic professional judgments about

student thinking and learning.

HomeWork-School: Blurring the Lines in Digital Spaces

The publication of Growing Success in 2010 motioned a significant change to traditional

standards and methods for evaluation, including the compartmentalizing of academic

achievement in a subject-specific curriculum, set apart from the Learning Skills (Responsibility,

Organization, Independent Work, Collaboration, Initiative, Self-regulation). It depicts academics

and social-emotional learning as separate entities and suggests how learning skills may influence

but should not determine achievement outcomes. One notable change applied to homework.



Olivieri / Emerging Perspectives (2024) 5

Homework was newly classified under the Learning Skills, which brought to a halt, by policy

standards, traditional methods of ‘grading’ homework. Assignments for evaluation could no

longer include “ongoing homework that students completed in order to consolidate their

knowledge and skills or to prepare for the next class” (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2010).

As an equitable approach to assessment, educators could now exercise their professional

judgement in evaluating a student’s level of achievement, which is now solely based on work in

the presence of students - work observed during the instructional day - and quantify the

demonstration of learning in alpha-numeric form. During school closures, the dissonance

between this policy and all work completed or uncompleted ‘at home’ was palpable. This raised

questions about authenticity, fairness in evaluation, students’ context and lived experience, in

addition to the overwhelming concerns about privacy in the realm of digital learning (i.e.,

cameras ‘on or off’). The entanglement of home-work and school-work - that which should be

counted as observable work - was further complicated by how it was to be ‘measured’ along the

school-home time continuum.

Although the eventual return to in-person learning began to stabilize daily routines, what

lingered was an underlying struggle between yearning for ‘back to normal’ and an awakening to

question instructional and assessment practices moving forward critically. The current

homework policy aligns with the purpose of assessment: to improve student learning (Ontario

Ministry of Education, 2010). It helps to mitigate conditions outside of school that may impact a

student's achievement level, whereby teachers can make better judgments of student learning. As

educators reflect on experiences throughout ‘emergency learning,’ we can begin to untangle an

array of assessment inequities, predominantly in the realm of evaluation, and reimagine better

ways to leverage the use of digital tools for future learning.



Olivieri / Emerging Perspectives (2024) 6

Pedagogical Documentation: A Way Forward

Pedagogical documentation is a “process for making pedagogical (or other) work visible

and subject to dialogue, interpretation, contestation, and transformation” (Edwards, C., Gandini,

L., & Forman, G., 2012). It builds on “engagement and inquisitiveness in the here-and-now

event” (Edwards, C., Gandini, L., & Forman, G., 2012) and has the potential to view learning in

new ways, to assess flexibly with particular needs in mind, and to individualize and differentiate

response by engaging students as active participants in their learning (Ontario Ministry of

Education, 2015). A learner-centred environment is one that emphasizes assessment for

learning, the process of seeking and interpreting evidence to decide where the learners are in

their learning, where they need to go, and how best to get there (Assessment Reform Group,

2002) and as learning, the explicit fostering of students’ capacity over time to be their own best

assessors (Western and Northern Canadian Protocol for Collaboration in Education, 2006).

Pedagogical documentation, as an iterative process of examining and responding to the interplay

between learning, the educator’s pedagogical decisions, and the student’s role and voice in the

learning process (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2015), enables educators to reimagine equitable

assessment as a way of bringing assessment for and as learning to life (Ontario Ministry of

Education, 2013). This requires a shift in practice, from “telling to listening” and wondering

about student thinking (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2015). Intentionally designed

assessments, guided by curiosity and wonder, can be used to determine what students know and

gain insight into how, when, and whether students use what they know. This can allow teachers

to assess and evaluate differently, and to streamline and target instruction and resources (Earl,

2010). In digital spaces, where the boundaries between home and school become blurred -

where an appreciation for nuance and social-emotional development may be at risk - pedagogical



Olivieri / Emerging Perspectives (2024) 7

documentation can help educators “develop a greater understanding of how students at various

ages can be supported in their learning, academically as well as socially and emotionally”

(Ontario Ministry of Education, 2015). By dipping into the phases of pedagogical

documentation, educators can exercise their professional judgment to contemplate and navigate a

variety of ways in which students can demonstrate their learning. Pedagogical documentation

empowers educators to create learning conditions that can transform assessment by moving

beyond the transactional ‘I teach, you do, I mark’ and to center formative assessment over

traditional grading systems.

Documentation in the Digital Age

The use of digital technology to support assessment not only serves to improve efficiency

but can ‘reboot’ assessment by seeing deeply into students’ thinking, promoting self and peer

assessment, maximizing time for assessment, and preserving evidence of learning (Cooper &

Catania, 2022). With an assortment of digital tools available, reimagining equitable assessment

through pedagogical documentation must be approached with ethical consideration. Respect for

human dignity, privacy and confidentiality, respect for vulnerable persons, and free and informed

consent ensures the goal of minimizing harm and maximizing benefits to the community

(Ontario Ministry of Education, 2015). Educators and students need to negotiate their way

through ethical dilemmas that may arise when working with visual and/or audio artifacts

intended to bring visibility to the lives of children in ways that include their voices in a

collaborative endeavour (Tarr, 2011). As the digital landscape evolves, documentation of

learning must begin from a place of curiosity and care. Pedagogical documentation, as a way to

build an understanding of student learning across the grade,s conveys that presence in learning

can better humanize experiences regardless of these ongoing changes (Ontario Ministry of



Olivieri / Emerging Perspectives (2024) 8

Education, 2015). Pedagogical documentation can transcend the ‘digital’ to the ‘relational’ and

serve as an integral part of equitable assessment moving forward.

Future Learning: Policy, Pedagogy, Promise

As educators envision a post-pandemic world - one where assessment for and as learning

is valued over assessment of learning - it signals, perhaps, a need to recalibrate and challenge

‘traditional’ methods of assessment and evaluation by shifting the focus away from grades.

Educators can move from a “culture of teaching” to a “culture of learning” and discover that

presence in learning, through pedagogical documentation, builds on students’ individual

strengths and abilities (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2015). It can redefine how learning is

measured. This entails a reimagining of school - a place where educators and students

co-construct experiences that honour critical questions over answers, relationship-building over

transactional evaluation, responsiveness over reactiveness, and flexibility over fixed frameworks

- to better seize moments that amplify process over product.

Fairness in all learning spaces can only be illuminated with an intentional shift to assess

differently. Focusing on assessment for and as learning (i.e., more feedback, grading-less) and

where ethical consideration is given to ways of maximizing observation and conversation will

strengthen a shared vision of equity and inclusion. It will empower educators to understand each

student’s lived experience, how the interconnectedness of their strengths, struggles and abilities

shapes their learning, and how future assessment practice can honour infinite ways of knowing.

Imagining future learning evokes a reimagining of presence in learning where we must first

position ourselves differently in the world; business ought not to go on as usual (Harste, 2001, p.

15).



Olivieri / Emerging Perspectives (2024) 9

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