Hamilton, ON – June 16, 2010: The Education Quality and Accountability Office today released school- and board-level results of the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) that students across the province wrote in April, 2010. Students must successfully complete the OSSLT or a related literacy course before graduation.
Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board students maintained gains made in recent years, and five HWDSB secondary schools improved their results. The percentage of fully participating, first-time eligible students who were successful – achieving at least Level 3 out of 4 – was 81.6 per cent, down 1.4 per cent from 2009. The provincial average pass rate was 84 per cent, also down from 1 per cent from 2009.
“We continuously work to improve student achievement,” said Director of Education John Malloy. “We are pleased that our schools are seeing the results of teacher collaboration, professional development and co-operation with the elementary panel.”
Several schools continue to show impressive gains in achievement on the OSSLT.
· At Sir John A. Macdonald Secondary School, the success rate has increased five years in a row, moving from 57 per cent in 2006 to 72 per cent in 2010. The school has a narrow gender gap – with female students just 6 per cent ahead of male students – and 70 per cent of participating English Language Learners passed the OSSLT. SJAM receives urban priority funding as an inner-city school and is part of the innovative CALL (Cross Curricular Applied Literacy Learning) program. CALL, which involves nine schools this year, sees teachers of Applied-level courses collaborate on assigning, marking and post-test follow-up.
· At Sir Allan MacNab Secondary School, the OSSLT pass rate has increased from 70 per cent in 2006 to 89 per cent in 2010. A leader in remediation and support for students, MacNab treats the OSSLT as a learning tool, by giving practice tests, involving all teachers in literacy work, giving feedback to parents, and inviting elementary teachers to help students with longer-term preparation. MacNab has a non-traditional gender gap with 90 per cent of male students successful versus 87 per cent of female students. It also has a small gap in the pass rate for students in Applied versus Academic English, which is 81 per cent and 94 per cent respectively.
· At Saltfleet District Secondary School, solid gains on the OSSLT are being sustained from year to year. The school spent two years with a pass rate of 84 per cent, and in 2010 increased this to 86 per cent. Using practice tests and teacher moderation, Saltfleet has improved results for students in Applied English courses to 70 per cent, up from 62 per cent in 2009.
Waterdown District High School’s OSSLT pass rate rose 2 per cent to 89 per cent. The rate for female students was 95 per cent, and for students in Academic English it was 96 per cent. Waterdown used mentoring with volunteer teachers, reviews for at-risk students, literacy activities based on the test for students in grades 9-11 and more.
“Throughout the year, schools have been focused on providing supports to students through practice testing, feedback and remediation, which has resulted in success for many on the OSSLT,” said Peter Joshua, Superintendent of Education – Instructional Services.
”Along with these efforts, teachers are helping students develop literacy skills across all subject areas as part of their classroom instruction, which will lead to improved credit accumulation and student achievement towards graduation,” Joshua added.
The OSSLT was administered for the 10th time on April 9, 2010. At HWDSB, 3.520 first-time eligible fully participating students wrote the test.
The purpose of the OSSLT is to determine whether a student has the reading and writing skills required to meet the standard for understanding The Ontario Curriculum across all subjects up to the end of Grade 9.
Successful completion of the test, or the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course, is one of 32 requirements for an Ontario Secondary School Diploma. Students who do not pass the OSSLT can repeat the test, or take the literacy course to satisfy this requirement.
Results of EQAO tests, which are developed by Ontario teachers, are one of the indicators that school boards use to measure student learning against a common provincial standard. It is used for planning at the student, school, board and provincial levels.
Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board has a vision in which all students achieve their full potential. Embracing achievement, engagement and equity, the Board's 5,000 staff provides relevant, responsive education so that each of our 50,000 students become life-long learners and contributing citizens in a diverse world. Visit hwdsb.on.ca or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/hwdsb.
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For More Information:
Jackie Penman
Corporate Communications Manager
905-527-5092, ext. 2301
905-317-0086
jackie.penman@hwdsb.on.ca
