SUDBURY – The trends are positive for students within the Rainbow District School Board (RDSB) in terms of improved scores they have shown in results from the latest Education Quality Accountability Office (EQAO) testing.
“I can tell you that as a board we’ve outperformed the province in at least five areas from one year to the next, and in seven of the nine categories our results are equal or we have outperformed the province in terms of our results trending upward,” stated Norm Blaseg, Director of Education for the RDSB, last Friday. He stressed, “this doesn’t mean we have attained provincial standards, but our results are trending up, which is great news.”
He pointed out the most recent EQAO results scores were released on October 2. “Yes, the math results are still a concern, it seems everywhere in the province.” He explained that in the RDSB, in Grade 3 reading the most recent EQAO numbers show 70 percent of students attained standard level while the provincial average has dropped from 75 to 74 percent. In writing, the RDSB is down one percent from 65 to 64 percent of students attaining provincial standards while the provincial average dipped from 72 to 69 percent; and in Grade 3 mathematics, the RDSB stayed at the same rate, 53 percent, while the province overall went from 61 to 58 percent—a decrease of three percent.”
In Grade 6 results, in reading, the RDSB students improved from 76 to 77 percent while the province overall numbers went down from 82 to 81 percent. “With these numbers it shows we are closing the gap, and we are feeling good about this,” said Mr. Blaseg. In Grade 6 writing the RDSB went up one percent from 71 to 72 percent, while the province average results went down by two percent; and for mathematics the RDSB went down three percent while the province went down one percent. “This (math results) does concern us, it remains an area of focus, we’re putting many resources into this area than in the past,”
In the Grade 9 Ontario Secondary School Literacy Tests, the RDSB saw an improvement on average of one percent to 71 percent of students achieving standard levels, while the provincial average went up one percent as well. For Grade 9 academic mathematics, the RDSB average remained the same, 81, and the province stayed the same at 84 percent. In applied math the RDSB results show an improvement of three percent from 38 to 41 while the provincial average went down by one percent.
“When we speak of individual schools some did extremely well within our board, and elementary schools on Manitoulin Island should be acknowledged for what they have done, they had pretty nice results and we are extremely proud of what they have accomplished,” said Mr. Blaseg. “Overall our schools, students and teachers did quite well–we bucked the trend for the rest of the province.”
