Upper Grand Grade 10 Students Succeed on Literacy Test
MEDIA RELEASE
For Immediate Release
June 13, 2012
GUELPH, Ontario — Consistent with last year’s results, 84% of grade 10 students eligible to write the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) for the first time were successful this year. Once again, the board’s results were higher than the provincial average which came in at 82%.
“With students in the academic, applied, and locally developed courses performing above the province this year, Upper Grand students and their teachers deserve to be congratulated for their hard work and efforts,” said Bob Borden, Chair of the Board.
“With our special needs students we will continue to use assistive technology to help them with the test as well as in the regular classroom. Accommodations, such as more time to finish the test and scribes also help these students be successful. This is just one example of moving forward. We know with all of our students, there’s always more we can do.”
The OSSLT assesses the reading and writing skills acquired by students by the end of grade 9 across all subject areas, based on the Ontario Curriculum. It is also one of the requirements students must have to obtain their Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD).
Of the male and female students who were eligible to take the test, girls outperformed boys. While the boys matched the provincial average at 78% successful, Upper Grand girls were 4% points ahead of the province at 90% and 86% respectively. Boys are a group where the use of differentiated instruction techniques in the classroom can make a difference.
Due to the large amount of data now available over time from the EQAO, there is a growing opportunity for the identification of instructional best practices which can help to improve student achievement.
Next steps include continuing to identify the areas for focus. Planning for increased student success occurs at both the school and system level. School literacy teams, curriculum leaders, student success teachers and the literacy sub-committee of the student success initiative among others, all have a role to play.
Results for individual schools are included in the accompanying charts and are based on all students who actually wrote the test.
English Language Learners (ELL) achieved a 62% pass rate. The provincial average was 66%
Special needs students achieved at a rate of 52%, the same as the province.
Academic students were 97% successful, with a provincial total of 93%. In the applied courses, 63% of Upper Grand students and 53% of students across the province achieved success. Students in Upper Grand schools taking locally developed courses were 22% successful, compared with the province’s total of 14%.
First time eligible students:
Province 2010-11 – 83% Upper Grand 2010-11 – 84%
Province 2011-12 – 82% Upper Grand 2011-12 – 84%
For more information:
Maggie McFadzen, Communications Officer
519-822-4420 ext. 725
[email protected]
Mark Weidmark, Administrative Officer – Communications
519-822-4420 ext. 544
[email protected]
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