Watchdog focuses on consultant hired to boost schools' test scores
September 29, 2009
Jesse McLean
STAFF REPORTER
Ontario's conflict of interest commissioner is looking into complaints that a member of the board overseeing the province's standardized education tests has also been a private consultant to school boards trying to boost their scores.
The investigation was prompted after New Democrat education critic Rosario Marchese said Lorna Earl, a board member of the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO), was in "obvious conflict" to also be a paid consultant for school boards.
The EQAO is an arm's-length provincial agency that administers standardized tests of reading, writing and math skills.
Earl was appointed to the EQAO board in 2005. She also co-runs Aporia Consulting Ltd., a consultant firm that has been paid by a number of school boards – including the Toronto District School Board – to offer advice on improving student achievement.
"When you're on the board of the EQAO, you're of knowledge of many, many things. And your role is to get those marks up – and that's what she does when she gets hired privately," Marchese said. "Having intimate knowledge of the EQAO office, and taking out that knowledge with her expertise in these issues ... to me, it's a conflict."
However, the chairman of the EQAO defended Earl's position with the agency, saying he doesn't think there is any conflict with Earl's private work.
"A board member is not involved in test development, not involved in test scoring, not involved in test administration. (The board) provides direction and strategy, not administration," Brian Desbiens said. "We want to have the best people possible on our public boards," he said.
Earl could not be reached for comment.
Toronto Star