The Learning Bar is dedicated to improving the outcomes of all children and reducing childhood vulnerability. Their student assessments and survey solutions are developed by in-house researchers and educators, whose work on student learning is being used to affect local and national policy. This knowledge is the foundation of their evaluation tools which provide educators with the insight they need to make informed school planning decisions.
Underlying research
The Learning Bar was founded in 2005 by Dr. J. Douglas Willms. His extensive educational knowledge and recent work on student engagement for the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is embodied in the intellectual property of the Early Years Evaluation, Confident Learners and the OurSCHOOL surveys.
Early Years Evaluation (EYE):
Transitioning to school
Identify the developmental skills of children as they prepare for kindergarten with the Early Years Evaluation. Play-based assessment methods gather leading indicator data to help educators guide school planning and monitor each child’s progress. Immediate, easy-to-interpret reports empower teachers and multidisciplinary teams to personalize each child’s learning experience to ensure a successful transition to school.
Confident Learners:
Unlocking each child’s potential
Plan, develop and measure the progress of a child’s skill development over time with this whole-school and whole-community program. Confident Learners was developed with Indigenous partner schools to reduce the risk of literacy failure through early literacy assessment, structured learning objectives and evidence-based instruction during the primary school grades. A bank of over five hundred engaging and culturally relevant learning activities, with an online application, allows teachers to plan their lessons to meet the individual needs of their students.
OurSCHOOL (formerly Tell Them From Me):
Informing School Improvement
Measure, assess and report insights on your school using reliable and meaningful measures known to affect learning outcomes. These measures were developed by their research team, in consultation with leading experts and panels of students, teachers and principals. The in-depth reporting, subpopulation analysis and actionable data are the reasons why OurSCHOOL is now the largest national survey in Canada. Over 5.4 million students from 6,300 schools have added their voices to their rich data set to inform school improvement initiatives.
