WCDSB fares well in EQAO school testing, WRDSB catching up

The results of the academic assessments from the 2017–2018 school year were released on Tuesday. On average, the public school board showed improvement in some areas while its Catholic counterpart continued to lead the way.

The Education Quality and Accountability Office or EQAO tests are conducted to see whether students across the province are meeting the provincial curriculum expectations in reading, writing and math. The tests are annually conducted for students in Grades 3, 6, 9 and 10. Students in Grade 9 are tested in math only while students in Grade 10 take the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test.

The provincial averages for Grade 3 reading increased one percentage point (75 per cent) while writing (72 per cent) and math (61 per cent) each fell by a point.

The Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) continues to score below the provincial average in Grade 3 testing although it did improve across the board. Reading scores rose five percentage points to 67 per cent while writing (64 per cent) and math (56 per cent) each rose by a percentage point as well.

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The Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) was above the provincial average in all three categories: reading (77 per cent), writing (77 per cent) and math (67 per cent).

The scores from across the province for Grade 6 students increased one percentage point in reading (82 per cent) and writing (80 per cent) while math (49 per cent) scores also dropped by one point.

The scores for Grade 6 students in the WRDSB are closer to provincial averages in all three categories. Two of the three — reading (79 per cent) and writing (76 per cent) have increased since 2016, while math (47 per cent) remains steady.

The WCDSB still scores near average in all three categories: reading (81 per cent), writing (80 per cent) and math (52 per cent).

Both school boards are close to the provincial average of 83 per cent for the Grade 9 Math assessment test as each scored 82 per cent.

Similarly, they both score well above the provincial average of 44 per cent for the applied mathematics test as 52 per cent of Catholic board students made the mark while 48 per cent of public board students made the grade.

Both boards were a point below the provincial average of 81 per cent for the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test in 2017.