EQAO Workshop - October 15, 2014
Duke of Connaught Staffroom (6:00 - 7:45)
Board Employees: Beverly O’Brien (P), John Kyriazis (VP), Allison Scott (teacher), Melissa James (Model Schools CSW)
27 parents/guardians in attendance
What is EQAO?
Accountability of the School/individual teachers
How to Understand Child’s Progress
Understanding the Duke of Connaught’s EQAO Results
Other Considerations
Board Employees: Beverly O’Brien (P), John Kyriazis (VP), Allison Scott (teacher), Melissa James (Model Schools CSW)
27 parents/guardians in attendance
What is EQAO?
- EQAO is designed to be a snapshot of student achievement of curriculum requirements at end of grade 3, 6, 9 (and evaluation of literacy in the grade 10 literacy test)
- it measures knowledge based on the curriculum
- teachers have access to workshops and resources to help students prepare for test
- students have some preparation on how to write the test (ie. mcq strategies, not leaving questions blank etc)
- english stream students write grade 3 math/reading, grade 6 math/reading
- french stream students write grade 3 math in french, grade 6 math/reading in english
- parents can access old tests online at the EQAO website to better understand the types of questions
- the school will have a night in the spring for parents of grade 3 and 6 students to review the test protocols
Accountability of the School/individual teachers
- Ms. O’Brien must review school results on EQAO/DRA/Alfa Jeune (and all school data that is reported to the TDSB) several times a school year with the superintendent and executive superintendent
- Ms. O’Brien reports on PD, successes and learning that is taking place at the school to Principals from our family of schools
- Ms. O’Brien engages in regular instructional walkthroughs where she looks for specific “look fors” in the individual classrooms (ie evidence of descriptive feedback, 3 part lesson, learning goals, success criteria, anchor charts, instructional differentiation, use of assistive technology etc)
- teachers must update a monthly school data wall to show their students’ reading levels. Each teacher is accountable and must be able to explain how they are helping each student progress
- teachers must submit their plans to demonstrate individual and guided reading time
- teachers are evaluated on 5 year cycle, but if a Principal is not confident regarding an individual teacher’s abilities there is the opportunity for the Principal to initiate an early appraisal
How to Understand Child’s Progress
- you can best understand your child’s progress using yearly report card, EQAO results, CAT 4 results, and provincial standards outlined in the curriculum
Understanding the Duke of Connaught’s EQAO Results
- 33 kids wrote the grade 3 reading/writing test (0 at level 4, 13 at level 3, 11 at level 2, 9 at level 1)
- girls scores in math at grade 6 are significantly lower than boys, more efforts need to be made to engage the kids in math
- to help address the needs of kids who are not at the provincial standard:
- 3 teachers are trained in early reading intervention (to service kids at level 1)
- early at-risk identification of kids entering JK (they have extra reading opportunities) (this program is starting this year)
- resources have been purchased to help start the French read up program
- more benchmarks are being set up for kids exiting Kinde before they enter grade one (this is being done this year)
- monthly data wall is updated for every student at the school so teachers can discuss the student progress
- 3 part math lessons that look at problem solving with engaging real world math problems
- 39 kids wrote grade 6 math (26 students at level 1 or 2)
- co-teaching/planning/marking is taking place to ensure all teachers have a common understanding of the expectations/levels
- central staff (ie. model school coaches) coming into the school to coach teachers on useful strategies
- School Improvement Plan (in alignment with Board Improvement Plan) is focussed on improving student success, it will be shared with the SAC at an upcoming meeting
Other Considerations
- it is unlikely that we will be a Model School next year. This means we will not have access to extra Model School funding or CAT 4 testing. It was raised as a parent concern that this data is valuable, especially to a school struggling to achieve success on EQAO. Melissa James (Model Schools CSW) suggested a parent attend the Inner City School’s Council meeting next month to raise this as a concern.
- Melissa James also invited any parents with further concerns to write them down, she will make efforts to help address any parent concerns in her position as Model Schools CSW
- Ms. O’Brien invited anyone with additional concerns to meet with her to discuss in further detail