Grade 9 and 10 high school students in Wellington County scored at or above provincial averages in the most recent round of Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) testing.
Results from the tests, which involved math for Grade 9 students and literacy for Grade 10 students across the province, were released last week.
At the Wellington Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) students scored 85 per cent overall on the math and literacy tests, compared to 82% at the Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB). The overall provincial average was 82%.
“This is good News,” UGDSB chairman Mark Bailey said in a press release issued by the board. “We congratulate the students and their teachers who have consistently scored the same or higher than the provincial average, but there are lots of ways we can continue to improve.”
UGDSB Grade 9 students in the applied math program scored 52%, compared to a provincial average of 44%. Those in the academic math program scored 87%, while the provincial average was 84%.
“We are proud of our success in math, but we can always improve,” Bailey said. “There’s a lot of data to analyze at the school and board level, and this will help us identify instructional practices that work.”
Grade 10 student literacy scores at the Upper Grand board came in at the same level as the provincial average of 82%.
UGDSB boys outscored girls in the applied math program, 53 to 49% for the girls. On the academic side, boys scored 89%, while girls scored 86%. Bailey said the board continues to look at any discrepancies in scores by gender.
And despite poor EQAO scores released last week for Grade 3 and Grade 6 students, Bailey said he is encouraged by the higher scores at the high school level.
“We’d rather have our students perform well throughout,” he said. “I’m optimistic we’re going to find some key reasons for our disappointments and our successes.”
In Grade 9 math testing at the WCDSB, Catholic students scored 87% in the academic program compared the provincial average of 84%; while those in the applied program scored 56%, compared to the provincial average of 44%.
Grade 10 literacy scores for Catholic students came in at 85%. The provincial average was 82%.
At the WCDSB individual schools fared well overall compared to the board (85%) and provincial (82%) averages:
– Bishop Macdonell students scored 89%;
– students at Our Lady of Lourdes posted 85%;
– St. James students scored 83%; and
– St. John Bosco students scored 80%, a remarkable improvement over the 2012 result of 25%.
As for the UGDSB, the overall scores for the four high schools in the Wellington Advertiser readership area are as follows:
– Centre Wellington District High School in Fergus, 88%;
– Erin District High School, 80%;
– Norwell District Secondary School in Palmerston, 81%; and
– Wellington Heights Secondary School in Mount Forest, 81%.
