The results from the latest assessment of Ontario students have one Simcoe County school board celebrating math scores and another saying they don’t reflect the reality in its schools.
This week, the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) released its assessment results for 2017-18.
The results for the Simcoe County District School Board show 61 per cent of Grade 3 students met or exceeded the provincial standard for math – an increase of one per cent over 2016-17. Those figures were 44 per cent (up five per cent) for Grade 6 and 81 per cent (a six per cent increase) for Grade 9 academic math.
“We were very pleased to see this result and were glad to see that (the board’s) focus and supports that were put in place resulted in gains in achievement,” said Tracy McPhail, the board’s principal of program for kindergarten to Grade 12.
The Ministry of Education had identified 23 of the board’s schools as being in need of “increased and intensive support,” McPhail said. So, the board introduced “ongoing professional learning” for teachers, principals and superintendents in an effort to help students who were performing below the provincial average and brought in “content knowledge experts” to assist teachers in the classrooms.
Meanwhile, the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board is applauding the province’s decision to review EQAO assessments.
“We welcome the government’s proposed review because there seems to be a disconnect between how students are performing on these tests compared to the results we are seeing in other assessment areas,” Brian Beal, director of education, said in a news release. “We know that our teachers are doing an excellent job and that our students are working extremely hard. These scores in Grade 6 mathematics do not reflect the learning and achievement that takes place every day in our classrooms.”
He was referring the result that showed 39 per cent of students met or exceeded the provincial standard for math.
The math results for other grades were 51 per cent for Grade 3, 34 per cent for Grade 9 applied mathematics and 77 per cent for Grade 9 academic mathematics.
“I have witnessed first-hand the dedication of our staff and students and I know that some of these results may be disheartening,” board chair Carol Corriveau-Truchon said in the release. “We don’t want our students to lose confidence in their abilities. Families need to recognize that the EQAO test is only one, very limited, tool to measure student outcomes. The government has recognized that there are limitations and concerns right across the province with the EQAO, which is why they are conducting a review.”
McPhail agreed that “EQAO is only one measure of student achievement,” but she said it is useful.
“It does provide us with (information on) how a student is doing over time,” she said. “It is a very helpful tool for boards to plan improvement strategies.”
Find out more about EQAO here.
