Grade nine math students fall below provincial average

Students in applied programs should not be given the same provincial math tests as those in the academic stream, says Near North School Board trustee Eunice Saari.

The board released results Monday from a provincial Grade 9 math test, and they showed Near North applied students—those not heading toward university—fared worse than the provincial average.

“The problem is the same Math test that’s given to the academic students is also given to the applied students, so the applied students are set-up to fail,” said Saari, chairwoman of the board for the last three years.

“We’ve been crying out that these students can’t wait much longer and be faced with failure time and time again. If the province doesn’t modify the math tests to meet the applied curriculum it will just increase the number of high school drop-outs.”

Results attrocious
Keith Pacey, president of the District 4 teachers’ bargaining unit of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation said the provincial and local results for the Grade 9 applied students are “atrocious.”

“In fact, in spite of the hard work put forth by both the teachers and the students to improve these results, the improvement in the results over the past three years has not been overwhelmingly encouraging,” Pacey said.

“When one looks at the results for the past three years at the applied level, one must begin to wonder whether the one-size-fits-all test is flawed, the curriculum is inappropriate or both.”

Two methods are used to assess test results.

Method One data shows the number of students in the grade including students who are exempted and those participating in the assessment who did not produce enough work to be scored.

Method Two data expresses the distribution of student results as a percentage of those students who actually took part in the assessment and produced work that could be scored.

Students who were exempt, or for whom there was no performance data, are excluded.

Academic students fared better
Under Method One 18 per cent of Near North Grade 9 applied students tested achieved the provincial average, compared to 16 per cent in 2002 and 19 per cent in 2001.

Provincially 21 per cent of Grade 9 applied students achieved the average this year, the same as 2002, and eight per cent above the 2001 results.

Near North Grad 9 academic students fared considerably better, although they still fell below the provincial average at a greater rate than the applied students

Under Method One, 53 per cent reached the provincial average, the same as 2001, and two percentage points higher than 2001.

Provincially, under Method One, 66 per cent of students achieved the average in 2003, compared to 63 per cent in 2002 and 50 per cent in 2001.

Under Method Two 67 per cent of students provincially achieved the average, four percentage points higher than in 2002 and 15 points higher than in 2001.

Good hard look
The tests are prepared and administered by the Ontario Education Quality and Accountability Office.

Pacey said it’s time the Education Ministry took a “good hard look” at both the test conducted by the EQAO and the current curriculum being taught at the Grade 9 and lower levels.

On Friday, Pacey said, OSSTF president Rhonda Kimberley-Young announced the organization would be conducting its own thorough research study to review the applied curriculum in Ontario’s secondary schools.

“I am looking forward to seeing what the results of this study will find,” Pacey said, and how the new Education Minister will react to the OSSTF findings and suggestions.”