Exams Aren't the Only Way to Test Kids

Why seminars, research projects and thoughtful conversations best traditional assessments

- By Dean Maltby Associate director and superintendent of student achievement, Simcoe County District School Board

EVERY SCHOOL YEAR culminates with exam week, a notoriously unforgiving period where students cram, write feverishly in echoing gyms, then hope for the best until report cards land. It’s an archaic system that leaves kids without any room to learn from their mistakes, or to even see where they went wrong.

I’ve spent more than 25 years in Ontario’s public school system—first as an elementary teacher and special education resource teacher, and now as the associate director of the Simcoe County District School Board. I’ve seen how the one-size-fits-all model of traditional exams limits learning and frustrates teachers. When I was a superintendent of education from 2017 to 2024, I received anxious calls every July from students and parents questioning marks, confused as to why the final grade didn’t reflect the kid’s effort. Without firsthand knowledge of the student’s history or coursework, the school principal could only offer a semblance of guidance and readjust grades from a distance. It never felt fair to the teachers or helpful to the students.

During the COVID-19 lockdowns, traditional in-person exams became impossible, and educators were forced to confront how we evaluate learning and who the system served. We realized our assessment models were clearly built for another era—one heavily focused on memorization and learning standard concepts geared toward a single, university-bound pathway. But the way we gain and use knowledge has shifted. Today’s students have 24/7 access to information through the internet, which makes rote memorization far less relevant.