News Release

TORONTO, June 10, 2009—Today the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) released school- and board-level results from the 2008–2009 Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) and also published a comprehensive report entitled Ontario Student Achievement: EQAO’s Provincial Report on the Results of the 2008–2009 Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test.

On June 3, EQAO announced that, this year, 85% of first-time eligible students across the province met the literacy standard for reading and writing, which is based on the expectations in The Ontario Curriculum. With reports for all schools and boards now available on EQAO’s Web site, school communities across the province can access their local results and view the outcome of their collective efforts to improve student literacy skills.

“EQAO’s school and school board reports promote strong accountability by giving parents and the public independent and reliable information on student achievement in their local schools,” said Brian L. Desbiens, the Chair of EQAO’s Board of Directors. “But the true value of this testing goes well beyond gathering results for reporting. The value lies in gaining critical information on where students are having difficulty so that appropriate improvement strategies can be put in place to support them.”

In the Provincial Report, six Ontario schools are profiled for their success in improving student literacy, as demonstrated by their OSSLT results over the years. The school teams relate what EQAO and other data have taught them about their students and the innovative approaches they’re using to address areas needing improvement.

“Ontario educators are now committed to using data to improve student learning, and they’re extremely sophisticated at it,” said Marguerite Jackson, EQAO’s Chief Executive Officer. “EQAO continues to work closely with educators across the province to expand the use of assessment data to help each student reach his or her highest potential.”

All information released today is available on EQAO’s Web site.

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The six schools profiled in EQAO’s Provincial Report are identified in EQAO’s regional news releases:

• Assumption College School (Brantford), Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District School Board
• Lake Superior High School (Terrace Bay), Superior-Greenstone District School Board
• Quinte Secondary School (Belleville), Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board
• St. James Catholic High School (Guelph), Wellington Catholic District School Board
• St. Peter’s Secondary School (Barrie), Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board
• Timmins High and Vocational School (Timmins), District School Board Ontario North East

Aussi disponible en français.

For further information and to arrange interviews, please contact

Katia Collette, Communications Officer
416-212-7047, katia.collette@eqao.com.

Backgrounder

About EQAO

The Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) came into being in 1996 as an independent arm’s-length agency of the Ontario government after the Royal Commission on Learning recommended the establishment of province-wide testing to evaluate and report on the quality of education in Ontario schools. For more than a decade, EQAO’s assessment practices and processes have placed the organization at the forefront of large-scale assessment programs worldwide. EQAO administers several province-wide tests each year. Results from these assessments yield individual, school, school board and provincial data on student achievement.

Assessments in Context

The quality of schools should not be judged according to EQAO data alone. EQAO results provide a “snapshot” of how students are achieving at one point in time and do not fully represent the richness and depth of multi-faceted schools and their students. Every school’s staff has access to many sources of data in addition to EQAO reports. School staff and parents need to take into account the complexities of their school by examining their EQAO results along with all of the other information they have about student achievement, such as that found in or through report cards, classroom assessments and board assessments.

School and Board Information

EQAO provides reports to help school staff use local data and share it with their communities. These reports, available on EQAO’s Web site, include

• ready-to-use summaries of results;
• easy-to-read graphs;
• information about the local context and
• trends over time.

In addition to the latest results of EQAO testing, the Ontario Student Achievement: EQAO’s Provincial Report on the Results of the 2008–2009 Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test includes practical strategies for instruction that classroom teachers can use. Each school or board also receives reports about its students’ answers to each question on the test. These resources will assist in identifying key areas for improvement.