Literacy Test results released
Posted Jun 15, 2011 06:30:44 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Waterloo Region District School Board has released the results of the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) testing.
The results show that 84% of the Board’s Grade 10 students passed the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT). The Provincial average was 83%, so for another year, Waterloo region was above the average.
EQAO released information on how students did in the Grade 6 testing compared to the OSSLT. 27% were not successful in meeting the provincial standard in grade six, but were successful on the OSSLT.
Elaine Ranney is the Assistant Superintendent for Learning Services for the Board, she says early detection of students who are struggling in public school allows them to be successful at the secondary school level.
Over 4,400 students took the test, which is 94% of the WRDSB students. The OSSLT is a requirement to graduate and receive a Secondary School Diploma. Ranney says the other 6% of the students would have been deferred until next year. Some students need an extra year of support before taking the test. She adds the students that were unsuccessful, can take on Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course to achieve their diploma.
There are 16 secondary schools and around 20,000 students under the WRDSB.
Meanwhile, the Waterloo Catholic District School Board has released their EQAO testing results.
There was a 94% participation rate, that’s one percent higher than the provincial participation rate.
Bruce Rodrigues is the Associate Director of Education for the Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WCDSB). He says he’s pleased with the results, “we were cautiously optimistic, as I often say, because part of it is that we recognize that we did well in reaching the provincial average, but we also recognize that we would like to do better and try to find ways that we can even do better than what we have currently done”.
The WCDSB met the provincial average and have for 5 years now.
Breaking the results down in 3 main categories:
Gender – females outperformed males; 88% versus 79%. That is comparable to the provincial average of 87% for females and 80% for males.
English Language Learners – 57% success rate. That was one of the areas the province was successful. The province achieved a 68% success rate.
Special Needs – 57% were successful in meeting the provincial target. Which is better than the provincial average of 52% success rate.
Rodrigues also says that they were pleased but would like to do better. Some of the ways that they can improve in years to come are “trying to target some interventions at the school level, specifically in the applied level English courses. Students who study at the academic level seem to succeed at a far greater rate than our students that study at our applied level”.
377 students participated from 6 secondary schools.
