FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 23, 2002

Public Board students improve test results
In February of this year, Grade 10 students across the province who are working towards an Ontario Secondary School Diploma participated in the first Secondary School Literacy Test. Locally, 1,282 Grade 10 students wrote the test. It is designed to measure students’ reading and writing skills based on language expectations common to all subjects in the provincial curriculum up to the end of Grade 9.

We are very pleased to announce that 80 percent of our students who wrote the test successfully completed it. This represents a seven percent improvement over results from October 2001 when a trial version of the test was administered.

“This test is only one measurement of how our secondary students are performing, but the literacy test does take all subjects into account. I am very proud of both our students and staff who continuously strive for improvement,” says Judy Edgar, Chair of the Board.

According to Angela Ferguson, Secondary Curriculum Coordinator, a number of factors have contributed to the improved results. “Each secondary school has moved ahead with whole school literacy initiatives. Each school community of staff, students and parents has been working together to identify and share effective instructional and assessment practices in order to help students improve their literacy skills,” she says.

Each student who took the test has received an Individual Student Report. Students who successfully completed both the reading and writing components have received a report which indicates simply that they were successful. Students who did not successfully complete either the reading, or the writing, or both components have received information about which skills they need to work on and they will have to rewrite the test.

Schools are using the assessment results, along with classroom assessment data, to help identify students’ strengths and needs in order to determine next steps for learning. It is important to stress that the test is not designed to produce data on which to base comparisons of school performances. There is not sufficient contextual information to qualify and make equitable any comparisons of achievement data. It is the position of both the Board and the Education Quality and Accountability Office that the use of test results to rank schools is counterproductive, misleading, inappropriate, and demeaning to students and staff.

Schools will be releasing their results to their school communities once they have analyzed and interpreted the results in relation to the provincial average which will be released on September 30th.

“I’m proud of the fact that each school is placing its students first and inventing and using strategies to meet their particular school needs,” says Dr. Bill Coombs, Superintendent of Instruction. “We will continue to find better ways to teach literacy across the curriculum,” he adds.

Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board has 54 schools serving over 18,900 students and employing 1,083 teachers. The district covers a wide geographical area of 7,221 square kilometres bordered by Bancroft to the north, Deseronto to the east, Prince Edward County to the south, and Quinte West to the west. The 2002-2003 operating budget is $133.9 million.

For information contact :
• Judy Edgar, Chair (613) 332-1480
• Angela Ferguson, Secondary Curriculum Coordinator, 966-1170 x2309
• Kerry Donnell, Communications Officer, 966-1170 x2354