Dear student or parent,
It is with great disappointment that we acknowledge that the October 20 trial of the online OSSLT was unsuccessful. Unfortunately, we experienced widespread technical issues with the network and, as a result, we had to cancel the trial assessment. We do not yet exactly know the root cause of the issue, but we are undertaking a thorough investigation.
We recognize that students spent considerable time and energy preparing for the trial assessment and that they had hoped to be able to complete their literacy requirement. The outcome was not what we hoped for, and for this, we are truly sorry. Because of the widespread nature of the issue, we do not yet know the implications on scoring and reporting.
As you know, this was a trial. This means students will still be considered first-time eligible for the regularly scheduled OSSLT in March 2017 to satisfy their literacy requirement. We can also confirm that the March OSSLT administration will include a pen-and-paper version of the assessment as originally planned.
Again we are very sorry and promise to keep working with you to get this right.
Sincerely,
Richard M. Jones, Ph.D.
Director, Assessment and Reporting
EQAO
