Lennie Comeau is a long-serving leader in the province of Nova Scotia and the pan-Canadian assessment programs. He holds a Diplome en sciences, Biological Sciences from Université Sainte-Anne; a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Biology from Acadia University; a Bachelor of Education (BEd) in Secondary Education and Teaching from Acadia University; a Master of Education (MEd) in Teaching French as a Second or Foreign Language from Université Sainte-Anne; and a Master of Mathematics for Teachers from the University of Waterloo.

Over his nearly quarter-century career, Lennie has been a classroom teacher and has served in many provincial assessment-related roles. He began as a teacher of senior high school courses in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley Regional School Board’s English and French Immersion Programs. From teaching, he transitioned to the Ministry of Education, where he has served as Mathematics Evaluation Coordinator, Assistant Director of Educational Research and Partnerships, and Assistant Director of Evaluation Services. In these various roles, he has worked with education partners to facilitate educational research in the province; overseen the development, scoring, and reporting of provincial mathematics examinations; coordinated Nova Scotia’s participation in national and international assessments, such as the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada’s (CMEC) Pan-Canadian Assessment Program (PCAP), and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA); and managed the provincial assessment program, including elementary, junior high, and high school assessments.

Lennie reports that Nova Scotia is in the midst of transitioning to digital assessment. Vretta was selected as the province’s technology partner following consultations with the CMEC and other Canadian jurisdictions using the platform. They learned that the cost of implementing online assessments would not be significantly higher than their current paper-based approach. Nova Scotia is completing user acceptance testing for the Vretta modules and plans to pilot the system in Grade 8 schools in February, followed by full administration in May. Grade 6 implementation is scheduled for the fall of 2026.

Lennie explains that the province has decided to maintain paper-based examinations for mathematics due to concerns about students’ ability to communicate their calculations digitally, and they will also keep Grade 3 student assessments paper-based for the time being. He also discusses plans to transition the digital assessment program to an asynchronous online scoring model, similar to the system used by Ontario’s Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO), moving away from their current synchronous remote scoring approach.

Looking to the future of large-scale assessment, Lennie considers the integration of AI in scoring and its potential applications. While he expresses interest in AI-assisted scoring, he emphasizes the importance of human oversight, citing ongoing pilot projects and the need for public and educator trust.

Looking back over his career, Lennie takes pride in his contributions to standard-setting at the provincial and national levels and the development of the Nova Scotia Math 10 Exam. Away from the office, Lennie enjoys cooking, curling, and softball.