EQAO Publishes School- and Board-Level Results of Provincial Testing
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"School- and board-level results provide an essential foundation of data that parents, policy-makers and educators at the local level, in particular, rely on to gauge and plan for student progress," said
Provincial assessment results strengthen local accountability and encourage conversations between schools and families. Children have the most to gain when parents and guardians are active and informed regarding their child's education. EQAO has developed six questions that parents and guardians should consider when reviewing their school's report of results. These questions are currently available on EQAO's Web site (www.eqao.com).
The Provincial Report also profiles 18 schools from across the province that are using provincial assessment results to support their own improvement planning. The profiled schools are at various stages in their own journey of learning but are representative of dedicated school communities that can be found right across Ontario. The schools are notable for their leadership, proactive initiatives, data-driven strategies and whole-school approaches to help every child succeed. These are schools that have adopted an action plan based on their unique circumstances and that work toward improved student outcomes.
"The value of the provincial assessments goes well beyond their snapshot of student achievement at one moment in time," said
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BACKGROUNDER
Ontario Student Achievement Over Time
Table 1:
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EQAO Percentage at Levels 3 and 4
Assessment --------------------------------------------------
Component 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Gain over 5 years
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Grade 3 Reading 59% 62% 62% 61% 61% +2
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Grade 6 Reading 63% 64% 64% 66% 69% +6
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Grade 3 Writing 61% 64% 64% 66% 68% +7
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Grade 6 Writing 59% 61% 61% 67% 67% +8
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Grade 3 Math 66% 68% 69% 68% 70% +4
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Grade 6 Math 60% 61% 59% 61% 63% +3
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Grade 9 Applied Math 27% 35% 35% 34% 38% +11
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Grade 9 Academic Math 68% 71% 71% 75% 77% +9
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About EQAO
The Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) was established in 1996 based on a recommendation of Ontario's Royal Commission on Learning. The commission consulted extensively with teachers, parents, students and taxpayers. It concluded that province-wide assessments would contribute to greater quality and accountability in the publicly funded school system. EQAO was created as an independent agency to conduct the assessments and gather objective information from our schools.
EQAO plays an important role in Ontario education by conducting province-wide tests at key points in every student's primary, junior and secondary education and by reporting the results. The tests measure student performance in reading, writing and mathematics based on the expectations set out in The Ontario Curriculum.
Results from EQAO testing are an important indicator of student learning and measure achievement in relation to a common provincial standard. The objective and reliable information gained through these assessments adds to the current knowledge about how Ontario students are doing and has become an important tool for improvement planning at the student, school, school board and provincial levels.
In the 2008-2009 school year, there were
- 125 481 Grade 3 students in 3399 schools;
- 136 076 Grade 6 students in 3216 schools;
- 100 992 Grade 9 students in academic mathematics in 684 schools
and
- 48 482 Grade 9 students in applied mathematics in 715 schools.
The Provincial Standard
EQAO's assessments are designed, administered and scored in partnership with Ontario's educators to directly measure the expectations set out in The Ontario Curriculum. These assessments provide a uniform, unbiased evaluation of student learning in Ontario's publicly funded education system. The provincial standard for achievement represents mastery of the knowledge and skills students are expected to demonstrate. That standard is rigorously maintained from year to year and the assessments are developed and scored in a way that ensures the results can be compared appropriately from one year to the next.
The four levels of achievement that EQAO uses to report student results are aligned with the four levels of achievement used by the Ministry of Education. The Ministry of Education has established Level 3 as the provincial standard. The following are brief descriptions of the levels:
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Achievement Level Definition
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Level 4 Achievement exceeds the provincial standard
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Level 3 Achievement meets the provincial standard
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Level 2 Achievement approaches the provincial standard
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Level 1 Achievement falls much below the provincial standard
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Individual Student Results
Students who participated in an assessment will receive an Individual Student Report (ISR) that shows the student's achievement in relation to the provincial standard. The ISR for students who wrote the junior-division assessment will also show their results on the primary-division assessment if they wrote it in 2006.
All ISRs provide parents with a summary of school, board and provincial results.
ISRs will be in schools the week of
Testing the Curriculum
The provincial tests given at the end of the primary division (Grade 3) and the junior division (Grade 6) are based on the expectations in The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1-8: Language (revised 2006) and The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1-8:
Mathematics (revised 2005), which outline the knowledge and skills students should have acquired by the corresponding stages of their schooling.
EQAO assessments measure how well students have met the provincial expectations. For example, Grade 3 and Grade 6 students are assessed in
- reading - using a variety of reading strategies and conventions,
understanding concepts, making inferences and connecting ideas;
- writing - using writing strategies and language conventions,
understanding assigned tasks, organizing ideas and communicating
with the reader, and
- mathematics - demonstrating knowledge and skills in the five
strands of mathematics: number sense and numeration; geometry and
spatial sense; measurement; patterning and algebra; and data
management and probability.
The Grade 9 mathematics test is based on the expectations for student knowledge and performance by the end of Grade 9 in The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9 and 10: Mathematics (revised 2005). The purpose of the Grade 9 Assessment of Mathematics is to assess the level at which students in the applied and academic mathematics courses are meeting Grade 9 curriculum expectations. Grade 9 academic and applied students must demonstrate knowledge and skills in three common areas - number sense and algebra; linear relations; and measurement and geometry - and academic students must also do so in analytic geometry.
For further information: and to arrange interviews, please contact Katia Collette, Communications Officer, (416) 212-7047, [email protected]
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