The Halton Catholic District School Board released today its Board and individual secondary school results of the 2009 Grade 9 Mathematics assessment conducted by the provincial Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO). The assessment was conducted in each semester of the last school year (January and June, 2009). A total of 2,276 Grade 9 students of the Board’s eight secondary schools at the time were eligible to participate. 1,738 students completed the Academic assessment and 538 students participated in the Applied testing.

Two versions of the test were administered – one for students in the Grade 9 Applied Mathematics program and the other for students in the Grade 9 Academic Mathematics Program. Each version was based on the Grade 9 expectations for students in The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9 and 10 Mathematics, which sets Level 3 as the provincial standard. Level 1 and above is equivalent to a passable grade, with Level 3 described as equivalent to a score of 70-79%.

“The Halton Catholic District School Board is very encouraged by our Academic Mathematics program results, which demonstrate that 83% of our students are achieving at or above Level 3,” states Director of Education, Michael W. Pautler. “These results indicate a 3% increase. This year, the Applied Mathematics program results show that 48% of our students are achieving at or above Level 3, which is good news signifying a 7% increase over the 2008 results. Building upon this success, both our Board and school improvement plans will continue to focus on the area of Applied Mathematics to improve learning for these students. A continued focus on Mathematics professional development initiatives for staff will be required in our Catholic learning communities to enhance student learning and achievement.”

“Our dedicated staff work diligently to ensure that student needs are met and our students are to be congratulated on their significant achievement. As well, the positive and interactive relationship between the parent communities and our schools is an important influence that is also reflected in the overall results,” states Rick MacDonald, Halton Catholic District School Board Superintendent of Education, Curriculum Services.

Some of the Mathematics improvement strategies have included:

• Teachers of Grade 9 mathematics were part of Catholic professional learning communities, facilitated by the mathematics consultant and the secondary numeracy itinerant teacher, that focused on meeting the needs of students through differentiating instruction, appropriate questioning and effective use of manipulatives and technology;
• There was an increase in opportunities for students to communicate their understanding of mathematics concepts through math talk learning communities in their classrooms;
• Capacity building sessions with the secondary itinerant teacher continued this year and were well received by students and classroom teachers alike;
• During second semester, two secondary teachers were released for part of the day to work as math coaches with other teachers in our Board focusing on Grade 9 applied mathematics. These teachers were provided with specialized coaching training for their work with their colleagues;
• SMART Board training and increased effective use of SMART resources were implemented last year;
• Analysis of EQAO Item Information Reports – Curriculum Services staff received in-service on the use of EQAO data in order to engage school improvement teams in conversation regarding the needs of the school and the required strategies for improvement;
• Itinerant Teacher support to Grade 9 Applied classes and support for implementing new Grade 9 Academic resources; and
• All secondary schools have a student success teacher to support struggling students. The student success leader meets on a monthly basis with all student success teachers thereby forming a professional learning community to support this role in the secondary schools.

The overall results for the Halton Catholic District School Board and individual schools are outlined in the chart included at the end of this release. The individual school results are listed alphabetically. The assessments were graded on a four level system, with one being the lowest and four the highest. The Ministry has defi ned Level 3 as the provincial standard. As advised by EQAO, it is inappropriate and misleading to rank schools or to make individual school comparisons without taking into account a variety of contextual factors.