Trustee ‘deeply concerned’ about school board’s provincial test results

Article content

The number of special needs and multilingual students in the Thames Valley District school board whose standardized test scores met the provincial standard dropped from the previous year in 10 of 14 categories, according to recently released provincial data.

Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) tests assess how well Ontario students are doing in reading, writing and math. The results are used to help improve student achievement.

Article content

In the Thames Valley District school board, 30 per cent of multilingual pupils, a 23 per cent decrease from the previous year, and 36 per cent of special needs pupils, a 12 per cent decrease, met the provincial standard for reading in Grade 3 in the 2023-24 school year. Fewer Grade 3 special needs pupils met the standard in writing and math scores.

Though 15 per cent more special needs students achieved the standard in Grade 10 literacy, 13 per cent fewer multilingual learners reached the standard in Grade 10 literacy.

Thames Valley District school board superintendent Sheila Builder said a plan is in place to target those two groups of students with extra supports.

“This is an area that will need to be an intentional focus for system and school teams,” Builder said at a board committee meeting on Tuesday evening. “We need to learn more here in order to better support these students. We know we need to address the disproportionately.”

Builder said the board did see “quite a few successes” in provincial testing scores for students overall and credits the board’s math action plan for the results.

Article content

Article content

“The percentage of students meeting provincial standards increased overall in all three mathematic assessments,” she said. ”It’s great to see success in this area.”

Grade 3 literacy and the Ontario secondary school literacy test results remained the same or show a modest increase from last year, Builder said.

She also noted decreases in the number of students meeting provincial standards in Grade 6 reading, writing and math.

“We will be digging into these results more closely,” she said. “We will develop a plan to address and support needs in this area.

“It is important to note we are closing the gap.”

But one trustee questioned why the boards results lagged provincial averages.

Trustee Marianne Larsen said she was “concerned about the story I am being told this evening.

“What I see  . . . is the gap between provincial numbers of students that are achieving its standard and where we are at,” she said. “I am deeply concerned about that, particularly with the numbers related to multilingual learners and students with IEPs (individual education plans).”

Article content

Trustee Lori-Ann Pizzolato said the board needs “big, bold changes to reduce the gap.

“I would like to see a report on how we are going to pivot,” she said.

The London District Catholic school board showed improvement in several areas, with the greatest improvements found in Grade 3 reading and writing, board spokesperson Mark Adkinson said.

“Overall, student achievement remains steady with some areas trending in a positive direction,” he said.

Staff will analyze the results and connect with schools as needed, Adkinson said.

Education Minister Jill Dunlop said the provincewide results show that, after years of disruption to foundational classroom learning resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, student learning is bouncing back.

“Ontario is stabilizing as our government’s focus on core learning and practical skills development begins to be felt,” she wrote in a statement.

“We can see that Ontario  students are benefiting from our government’s back-to-basics approach, including over $165 million in investments to support literacy and math, as well as the steps we have taken to avoid labour unrest so students can remain in the classroom.”

HRivers@postmedia.com

@HeatheratLFP

Article content

Article content