Peel school board EQAO scores slip from previous year

EQAO scores in the Peel District School Board slipped in elementary, after making significant increases last year, but the five-year trend still shows substantial improvement. Overall results for the grade 9 math assessment have remained consistent.

"These results are unexpected, given the intense focus of entire school system on improving literacy and numeracy skills," said Jim Grieve, director of education. "However, we know that year-to-year comparisons can be misleading - it's important to look at the overall trends. Our students have made impressive gains over the past five years, and that's thanks to the hard work of our staff."

Highlights of the results include the following:

* 10% more ESL students in grade 9 applied math achieved level.

* 3 or 4 this year than previously, and 15% more ESL students in grade 9 academic math achieved the provincial standard or higher.

* Students with special needs in grade 9 academic math scored 9% higher in level 3 or 4 in 2006-07 than the previous year.

* 30% of grade 3 students who took the test are ESL learners.

"What's important about provincial testing is the way we use the results to improve teaching and learning," said Chuck Waterman, superintendent of curriculum and instruction. "Over the past year and a half, we have developed Transformational Practices, a whole-board focus on helping students improve literacy and numeracy skills across all grades and subjects of the curriculum. The practices are proven strategies that we've seen in action in Peel schools. We know that Transformational Practices are effective ways to help students learn, and we'll continue to focus on supporting our teachers in using this approach."

Schools and senior administrators will analyze the detailed student results that EQAO will release later in September and October, to gain a better understand of where to focus for improvement, Waterman added.

"We're looking for trends in the reports about particular parts of the curriculum that may need more attention."

Schools will use the EQAO data in their improvement planning.

"It's important for parents and the public to understand that the EQAO assessments are tests of the actual curriculum students are learning. Unlike a standardized test, a student's performance on the test is not compared to that of other students - instead, students are scored on how well they perform the required skills expected in that subject and grade," Waterman noted.