The Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) has released the results of the Grades 3 and 6 reading, writing and mathematics assessments and the Grade 9 academic and applied mathematics tests written by Ontario students during the 2006–2007 school year.

Officials at the Sudbury Catholic District School Board are pleased with the results of their Grade 3 and 6 students with both grades demonstrating gains across the spectrum. With respect to all Grade 3 students that wrote the Provincial assessments, student scores improved by 5 percent in reading (from 51 percent to 56 percent), 5 percent in writing (from 49 percent to 53 percent) and 3 percent in mathematics (from 56 percent to 59 percent). The Board’s Grade 6 students also showed improvement in the reading component (from 66 percent to 68 percent) and math component (54 percent to 59 percent) while maintaining an average of 58 percent in writing.

The positive trend in EQAO results was also demonstrated by the Sudbury Catholic District School Board’s Grade 9 students, scoring 76 percent in the academic math program
(5 percent above the Provincial average of 71 percent) and 56 percent in the applied program
(21 percent higher than the Provincial average of 35 percent).

SCDSB Results Over Time
Percentage of Students Meeting the Provincial Standard (Levels 3 and 4):

(Source EQAO website, www.eqao.com)

Media ReleasePaula Peroni, Chair of the Sudbury Catholic District School Board is encouraged with the recent test results. “In the last five years our Board has witnessed an increase in the percentage of our Grade 3, 6 and 9 students who have met or surpassed the provincial standards in reading, writing and math,” states Peroni. “Numerous strategies have been put into place this year which we are confident will continue to yield positive results. The overall picture, which includes significant increases in our secondary schools is in line with our strategic improvement plan.”

Catherine McCullough, Director of Education for the Sudbury Catholic District School Board is equally optimistic with the latest data. “Recent test scores of our students writing the
Grade 3 and 6 provincial tests indicate that we are on an upward trend,” states McCullough. “Our secondary school scores exceed the provincial average and we will continue to use our secondary schools as a model for best practices. The strategies that are working well in one school will be used in other schools to yield positive results. The Learning With Laptops program for Grade 9 math was introduced in the spring of 2005. As we enter year 3 of the program, with our new MacBooks we hope to see continued improvement.”