Catholic board EQAO results impresses ministry
The Windsor-Essex Catholic School Board did so well in last year’s EQAO testing, particularly in math, that a student achievement representative from the Ministry of Education will meet with board officials to talk about what they’re doing right.
Bucking the downward trend in math scores across the province, the Catholic board reported improvements at every level in math when individual board results were released Wednesday.
“We’re very pleased with the results,” said Emelda Byrne, executive superintendent of education for student achievement.
“This is the second straight year we’ve been above the provincial averages in all nine categories in literacy and math.”
The board was above the provincial average in Grade 3, Grade 6 and in both Grade 9 academic and applied math.
The gap is most pronounced in Grade 9 applied math where the Catholic board had 61 per cent of students achieve the provincial standard of Levels 3 or 4. That represents an improvement of nine percentage points and puts the board 17 percentage points above the provincial average for applied math.
Byrne confirmed Ministry officials had contacted the board about their results and this week a meeting was finalized with the regional student achievement office.
“They’re interested in a conversation on our strategies,” said Byrne, who added the meeting would be in two weeks time.
In academic math, 91 per cent of Grade 9 students achieved the standard compared to the provincial average of 83. That’s an improvement of three percentage points.
There was also an improvement of three percentage points in the number of Grade 3s meeting the provincial standard (68 per cent). The average across Ontario was 62 per cent.
In Grade 6, 61 per cent of students achieved the standard, an increase of five percentage points, compared to 50 per cent for Ontario.
The only category there was a decline in came in the Grade 10 literacy test where 86 per cent of students achieved the provincial standard. That’s a drop of one percentage point.
Catholic board students also showed improvements of two to four percentage points in reading and writing in Grades 3 and 6.
Michelle Evon, assessment evaluation consultant, said there’s been no single initiative that gets most of the credit.
“We’ve taken a balanced approach,” Evon said. “We’ve introduced seven to 10 minutes of basic numeracy to go with problem solving.
“We have a lot of collaborative learning. We’ve have elementary and secondary school teachers working together so everyone is on the same page.
“There’s been lots of professional development. We’ve had focused supports for schools, things like math lead teachers.”
Some of the other initiatives launched include having a math night at all elementary schools so parents can come in and see and understand what’s being taught. The board also put together math kits, so families could work on math at home in engaging ways.
Dave Petro, the board’s math and science consultant, said another positive initiative was opening teachers to different perspectives.
There were meetings with colleagues in different departments within schools and opportunities to get into classrooms in different schools for teaching exchanges.
“We wanted to share best practices,” Petro said. “We don’t want them teaching in isolation.
“Going to another school gives you new ideas, maybe makes you question your own ideas.”
Petro added the board provided teachers with a variety of different and approaches to deliver the curriculum.
“Not everything matches every teacher’s teaching style,” Petro said. “We offer different strategies that best fit a teacher’s style.”
The news wasn’t as positive at the Greater Essex County District School Board.
The public board had improvements in Grade 3 and Grade 6 reading, but there were declines in six of the other nine testing categories.
The board is also below the provincial average in eight of the nine categories.
The one area the board remained above the provincial average was in applied math. However, the 47 per cent of Grade 9 applied math students who met the standard represents a drop of 12 percentage points over last year.
“We’re disappointed in the drop in the applied level mathematics, something we’ve done well in the past,” said director of education Erin Kelly. “We have to look at that.
“We saw a one per cent decline in Grade 3 math and we’ve stabilized in Grade 6.”
Superintendent of education Clara Howitt, who has been heavily involved in the Math Task Force, said the board will stay the course knowing “its going to take a lot of time and effort to turn the ship around.”
“We have a constructive approach,” Howitt said.
“We’ve seen data on ESL (English as a second language) and special education students who have made gains. The initiatives have made a difference for our most vulnerable students.
“We have attitudinal data and more students have a positive attitude to reading, writing and math. Over 85 per cent of teachers feel more comfortable teaching math.
“We know we’re on the right track, but we’ll make some adjustments based on what we find drilling deeper into the data.”
Vicki Houston, superintendent of education overseeing secondary schools, also has seen success in high schools where there’s been targeted intervention.
“We had five high schools with targeted interventions and all of them had improvements in their results,” Houston said. “We have to expand that intervention.”
Kelly said the other area of focus moving forward is writing.
“We have some work to do there,” Kelly said. “The drop in primary and junior writing is a provincial trend.
“We need to look at that. We have a plan to develop writing traits.”
For a complete list of results for area boards and individual schools visit: www.eqao.com/en/assessments/results/Pages/results.aspx. dwaddell@postmedia.com
We have elementary and secondary school teachers working together so everyone is on the same page.