News Release

SOUTHWESTERN ONTARIO, September 12, 2012—“Collaboration around the table allows us to put a face to a name, and allows all teachers to have input on possible strategies,” said Lynn Sulman, principal at the Lambton Kent District School Board’s Gregory Drive Public School, discussing how data can prompt conversations and teamwork. “The data for those students who were targeted is tracked through their final results.”

Gregory Drive Public School is one of five schools in southwestern Ontario being profiled in the Education Quality and Accountability Office’s (EQAO’s) Provincial Reports, released today, due to their committed efforts toward improving student achievement. The other four schools are the London District Catholic School Board’s Catholic Central High School, the Huron-Perth Catholic District School Board’s St. Columban Catholic School, the Niagara Catholic District School Board’s St. Michael Catholic Elementary School and the District School Board of Niagara’s Westlane Secondary School. The 27 schools being profiled this year are notable for their leadership, data-driven strategies and whole-school approaches to helping every child succeed. Although faced with its own unique circumstances, each profiled school has adopted an action plan to work toward improved student outcomes using provincial assessment results as a guide.

Assessments of Reading, Writing and Mathematics, Primary Division (Grades 1–3) and Junior Division (Grades 4–6)

• Gregory Drive Public School, Chatham
  “Collaboration around the table allows us to put a face to a name, and allows all teachers to have input on possible strategies. The data for those students who were targeted is tracked through their final results.”
  —Lynn Sulman, principal
• St. Columban Catholic School, Dublin
  “The staff of St. Columban have been instrumental to our success over time. They genuinely care about the students, and they want to move every child forward. They are engaged and active. They work well together on the collaborative inquiry. At St. Columban, we know that the EQAO is not only a Grade 3, 6 and 9 event. It is a primary, junior and intermediate event. We know that improvement does not happen overnight, so we choose one thing to be our focus.”
  —Heather Marcy, principal
• St. Michael Catholic Elementary School, Niagara-on-the-Lake
  “When you talk about successful schools you must talk about leadership at the board level. We appreciate that our Director of Education is open, visible and active in facilitating growth opportunities and change.”
  —Brian Palujanskas, principal

Grade 9 Assessment of Mathematics

• Westlane Secondary School, Niagara Falls
  “In this school we are always looking for different and creative ways to help out students and facilitate learning.”
  —Carol Purcer, principal

Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test

• Catholic Central High School, London
  “We have an increasingly diverse community, making it very important that we work together as a team to reach and engage our students. Ongoing communication with parents throughout the year has enabled us to encourage and support our students in understanding that literacy is a part of every curriculum, not just English and the OSSLT.”
  —Mark Priamo, principal

“EQAO results not only help schools identify areas of student learning that need attention, they also help them gauge the effectiveness of their improvement efforts,” said Marguerite Jackson, EQAO’s Chief Executive Officer. “The schools being profiled this year will surely inspire other schools and their communities across the province.”

Some of the common factors in addressing the literacy and numeracy needs of students that the profiled schools have identified are professional learning communities; data-driven decision making; a whole-school approach to literacy, numeracy and student achievement; small-group learning for literacy and numeracy; differentiated instruction; high-quality teaching; early intervention; tracking of all student progress; parental involvement; the coordination of school and board improvement planning and the implementation of Ministry of Education initiatives.

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The provincial news release “Ontario Students Demonstrate High Proficiency in Literacy. Success in Math Not Keeping Pace” and a backgrounder are also available.

Results for all publicly funded elementary and secondary schools and their school boards are available on EQAO’s web site.

For further information and to arrange interviews, please contact
Katia Collette
Communications Officer
416-212-7047
katia.collette@eqao.com

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