June 14, 2006

Peel board grade 10 EQAO scores continue to rise
85 per cent of students who took the test for the first time passed this year

Of the grade 10 students in the Peel District School Board who took the provincial literacy test, 85 per cent have been successful. This is a four per cent increase over last year.

Provincially, 84 per cent of students passed this year as compared to 82 per cent last year. This is a two per cent increase.

"I'm pleased to see the improvement in these results," says director of education Jim Grieve. "This year, we refined our efforts to help each student achieve literacy success. All teachers, principals, vice principals, support staff and of course, students and their parents have worked really hard to improve student skills. It's clear from these EQAO results that this hard work has paid off."

"Over the past year, we have focussed our efforts on helping our students achieve higher scores in EQAO by developing a strategy called 'transformational practices'," says Chuck Waterman, superintendent of curriculum and instruction.

"Under this action plan, we put together a team of instructional resource teachers to identify transformational practices at schools with successful EQAO scores, and shared these practices with the rest of the Peel board schools. Our focus was to find out what was transformational in helping our students perform better."

Highlights of the board results for participating students include the following:

• 9,233 students wrote the test for the first time
• 2,551 previously eligible students re-wrote the test – of these students, 55 per cent passed the test
• 51 per cent of ESL/ELD students passed the test this year – an increase of three per cent over last year
• 51 per cent of students with special needs (excluding gifted) passed the test this year which is a two per cent increase over last year
• of the students who wrote the test, 88 per cent of girls passed, compared to 82 per cent of boys

All results are expressed as a percentage of all students who actually wrote the test.

"It's important for parents and the public to understand that the literacy test is not a standardized test, and it's not a test of basic literacy skills. The test is based on the Ontario curriculum. Unlike a standardized test, a student's performance on the test is not compared to that of other students. Rather, students pass or fail the test based on a standard set by the EQAO, which designs and marks the test. The requirement to pass this test is clearly much higher than the normal pass mark in school," Waterman explains.

The OSSLT is a one day test that focuses on key skills in reading and writing. It is based on the reading and writing skills expected in the Ontario curriculum across all subject areas up to the end of Grade 9. The test includes reading selections, multiple choice and short answer questions as well as a variety of types of writing tasks. Students receive a combined literacy score and must pass the test to receive their high school diploma. The test results are reported as successful or unsuccessful.

To learn more about the test, visit the Peel board website at www.peelschools.org and look for the icon "grade 10 literacy test" on the home page, or go to the EQAO site at www.eqao.com.

EQAO is an independent agency operating within a framework set by the provincial government. EQAO is responsible for all aspects of testing including designing, developing, administering and marketing the test, reporting the results and making recommendations for school and system improvement based on the test results. Staff at each school are responsible for organizing the test, preparing students and providing the necessary support after the test.

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Media contact: Chuck Waterman, Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction
905-890-1010, ext. 2343

Reference: Priya Ramsingh, Communications Officer, 905-890-1010, ext. 2817