The Bluewater District School Board says the number of students passing the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test has increased by 4 per cent.
77 per cent of Grade 10 students passed the test, compared to an 82 per cent provincial success rate.
Province-wide, 81 per cent of females, and 72 per cent of males were successful.
In the Bluewater board, 73 per cent of girls, and 63 per cent of boys were successful.
Bluewater Superintendent of Education Lori Wilder says there was a ten per cent jump in the success rate for students with learning disabilities.
“We are very pleased with Bluewater’s progress in the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test. The latest increase has substantially closed the gap between our board and the province as we are now 5 per cent closer to the provincial average than we were in 2014. This is a remarkable accomplishment which can be attributed to the tremendous hard work and ongoing focus on literacy by our dedicated educators and administrators,” says Superintendent of Education Lori Wilder.
Meantime, 78 per cent of Grade 10 students in the Avon Maitland School Board were successful, down from 81 per cent last year.
80 per cent of girls were successful within the Avon Maitland board, compared to 66 per cent of boys.
The Upper Grand District School Board reports that 80 per cent of Grade 10 students passed the test.
“While the overall results are down a little, I am happy to see improvement over last year for students in Applied and Locally Developed Compulsory Credit courses,” says Mark Bailey, chair of the board. “Several schools targeted achievement in this area through special projects and the use of technology to support student success in literacy.”
The success rate for students in the Applied program had been trending downward for the last five years. This year, it went up from 53% to 55%. The provincial average remains at 50%. 95% of Academic students exceeded the provincial average.
Of the 2,512 students eligible to write the test for the first time (FTE), 47% were female and 53% were male. Girls outperformed boys with an 84% success rate, compared to 77% for the boys. The gender discrepancy is slightly less pronounced in Upper Grand as compared to the province, where 86% of female students were successful versus 78% for males.
