Students at the Near North District School Board have some catching up to do on the academic front.
The Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) recently released results of grades three and six assessments of reading, writing, and math, as well as grade nine math and grade 10 Ontario Secondary School Literacy.
Almost all the grade three and grade six NNDSB students took part in the EQAO assessments. The results? 58 per cent of grade three students met the provincial standard in reading, and 47 per cent of those students met the provincial standard in writing.
As for grade six students, 73 per cent met the provincial standard in reading, with 69 per cent reaching provincial standards in writing. As for grade 10 Ontario Secondary School Literacy score, 77 per cent of first-time eligible students who wrote the assessment were successful.
Now for the math. For grade three students, 41 per cent met the provincial standard. Grade six? 33 per cent met the standard. Grade nine? 28 per cent of students who wrote the grade nine de-streamed math test met the provincial standard in 2023-2024.
See: Ontario standardized literacy test scores down, math results steady or improving
And what is this level of achievement the province demands? The Provincial Government explained that the provincial standard level for achievement is a Level 3. There are four levels. If your child is at a Level 3 “the student demonstrates the specified knowledge and skills with considerable effectiveness,” the province details on its website. “Parents of students achieving at level 3 can be confident that their children will be prepared for work in subsequent grades or courses.”
Level 3 can be thought of as a grade hovering between a 70 to 79 percent, which is the usual C grade range.
The NNDSB issued a release detailing the findings of EQAO, noting “staff continue to support all students in developing foundational literacy and math skills.” So explained Melanie Gray, the board’s Superintendent of Teaching and Learning, adding “newly implemented diagnostic reading assessments will continue to help to ensure that students with reading difficulties are identified early, and the appropriate interventions are put in place.”
“We are pleased to see that the gains made in 2022-23 by first-time eligible students on the Ontario secondary school literacy test and the Grade 6 math assessment remained largely intact,” Gray noted.
See: Local school boards fare poorly in province-wide standardized testing program
Stephen Krause, the Principal of Student Achievement and Well-Being emphasized “We have seen incredible gains in educator capacity to provide targeted reading instruction and interventions.” He was speaking to the point that 91 per cent of the board’s kindergarten to grade two kids were screened for reading difficulties, and “As a system, we continue to deepen our understanding of how to effectively use this student data to inform instruction and programming decisions.”
The board’s math lead, Kim Pauli, said “We will continue to use EQAO assessment data, alongside a variety of data to identify student strengths and focus our efforts on areas where additional attention and resources are needed.”
Pauli added the board will continue to focus on the priority actions of the Ministry’s Math Achievement Plan, and this focus “will help us determine next steps for improvement at the system and school levels with the goal of removing barriers to success for all mathematics learners.”
Overall, the board noted “improving student achievement” will remain “a system-wide focus.”
The board emphasized that EQAO results “are just one among many assessment tools that both schools and boards use to measure and improve upon the quality of student programming and student success.”
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
