Some area students perform below provincial average, assessments show

Algoma District School Board administrators and trustees discussed below average Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) results for many ADSB students for the 2016-2017 school year at the board’s Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday.

The results include primary and junior division assessments of reading, writing and mathematics for children in Grade 3 and Grade 6, a Grade 9 math assessment and results from the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (the OSSLT, a high school graduation requirement).

Within the Grade 9 math assessment, ADSB students in academic level math were at or above the provincial standard in comparison to last year, and ADSB students in applied math narrowed the gap with the provincial average.

However, ADSB results were well below the provincial average in reading, writing and mathematics for children in Grade 3 and Grade 6 and in the high school literacy test, often by a double-digit margin.

So the question would be ‘why?’

“We all have the same mystery, we all have the same questions,” said Carol Lucio, ADSB superintendent, in presenting the numbers to the board with fellow superintendent Marcy Bell.

“I would definitely say there are socio-economic factors (a poor economy and poorer health in the Sault and across northern Ontario) that play a role, but we can’t use those as an excuse because all of our kids have potential to achieve,” Bell said, speaking to SooToday after Tuesday’s meeting.

Administrators said factors such as mental health issues in some children (such as depression, anxiety and a host of others) are more common in the north, affecting classroom performance in some students.

“I would say there are maybe one in four rather than one in five students, which is the provincial statistic, but again that can’t be an excuse so we have to see how are we going to address these things, because we do have a committed and caring staff and we can get there, but we have to get the whole picture and look at the whole student,” Bell said.

Bell suggested poor attendance in some ADSB students, another topic addressed at Tuesday’s meeting, could also play a factor in the 2016-2017 EQAO assessment.

When it comes to literacy, is there too much texting and time spent on social media as opposed to reading of actual books, whether books off the shelf or online?

“We have to recognize that social media piece is important to the students and it’s not going to go away. Do we need to get them reading books? Absolutely, but we have to recognize a lot of students are getting their information from their devices now rather than from books,” Lucio told us.

“With kids now, you ask them to find something and they find it in five seconds and their processing of information is much different from what we’re used to, so we have to look at how our instructional practices are changing to meet their needs,” Bell said.

“I would say sometimes our kids are not engaged because what we’re having them read is not of purpose to them, it’s not engaging them, so how do we reshape literacy to engage them in literacy?” Bell said.

When it comes to math, would it pay to go back to the old rote way of teaching mathematics, as many parents are critical of the ‘new math’ which is now being taught in schools?

“There are teachers that are still using some rote methods in their classrooms, some drill and practice, it’s not completely gone, but we want our kids problem solving and being critical thinkers, we want them to be more than just rote,” Lucio said.

“Even when we did rote, and as a math teacher, I will tell you that I was good at procedure and memorizing things…(but) my problem solving was an area I needed to work on, so there is a place for each,” Bell said.

Another possible factor contributing to the below average EQAO results in the Sault and across the north, Bell said, is the lesser number of households in the region where parents have a postsecondary education, in comparison to households in southern Ontario.

“(But) there are many different pathways and students can achieve any pathway regardless of where they’re coming from, regardless of what barriers or challenges they have to confront, regardless of their socio-economic or their parents academic background, that any pathway is an option for them,” Bell said.

Working with students to improve EQAO scores will continue, administrators said.

“It’s a matter of who are those students who are not achieving and what are we going to do about it,” Lucio said.

By comparison, EQAO results for the Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board (H-SCDSB) showed Grade 3 and Grade 6 students were near or at the provincial average in reading and writing, but lower than the provincial average in math.

H-SCDSB students were also lower than the provincial average in the academic and applied math groups in the Grade 9 math assessment.

H-SCDSB students who were tested also scored, on average, nearly 10 per cent lower than the provincial standard in regard to the high school literacy test.