Near North Board makes improvements in provincial testing

Near North District School Board
News Release

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Today, the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) released the results of the Primary and Junior Division Assessments of Reading, Writing and Mathematics and the Grade 9 Academic and Applied Mathematics Assessment written by all Ontario students during the 2007-2008 school year.

Seven hundred and sixteen Grade 3 students in 33 schools and 777 Grade 6 students in 35 Near North schools wrote the EQAO assessments last May. Additionally, 394 Grade 9 students enrolled in Applied Mathematics and 455 Grade 9 students enrolled in Academic Mathematics in 7 secondary schools wrote the Mathematics assessments.

The results show more students met or exceeded the Provincial Standard in Primary Writing, Junior Reading, Junior Writing and Junior Mathematics and Grade 9 Academic Mathematics. The number of Primary students meeting or exceeding the provincial standard in Reading was maintained. Although there were slight decreases in some areas, the trend over time continues to show significant growth.

The Board Improvement Plan for the 2008-2009 school year includes analyzing results to celebrate the areas of achievement as well as to look at areas that require additional support in order to guide instruction as well as interventions. The addition of Literacy Teachers to assist classroom teachers in learning new instructional strategies; the continued support of Differentiated Learning Resource Teachers to support classroom teachers and the continuation of assistive technology initiatives for students with special needs are ways in which the Near North District School Board will continue to provide support to all of its students.

The Near North Board’s focus this year will be on providing in-service around instructional strategies to support student achievement to move towards our goal of success for every student.

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