On Wednesday, September 21, 2016, the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) released results showing Halton District School Board students well outperforming the province in Grade 9 Academic and Applied Mathematics, and on the Grade 10 Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT). Secondary students must write the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) as a requirement of graduation.
For Grade 9 Math, there are different assessments for students in the academic and applied courses. On the Grade 9 Academic Math assessment, 90% of students achieved the provincial standard, unchanged from the previous year's result. The provincial average decreased by two percentage points to 83% of students achieving the provincial standard. In total, there were 3,302 students enrolled in the Academic Math course in 2015-2016.
For the 655 HDSB students in the Applied Math course, 55% attained the provincial standard in 2015-2016, a one percentage point increase from the previous year. The provincial average decreased by two percentage points from 47% to 45% from the previous year. Provincial standard is a level 3 (B) or better.
The Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) results for 2015-2016 were also released today. The Halton District School Board’s success rate for students writing the test for the first time remained unchanged at 88%, while the provincial average was 81%, a drop of one percentage point from last year. The overall results for the OSSLT in Halton continue to demonstrate remarkable consistency.
This year, the OSSLT participation rate was 97% and the success rate was 88%. Both of these Halton results are above the provincial average, showing Halton students continue to demonstrate strong literacy skills.