Most improved

While most local high schools are making the grade on the annual EQAO Grade 10 literacy test, Superior Collegiate and Vocational Institute has almost leapt to the top of the class.
 
Eighty-five per cent of SCVI students passed the Education Quality and Accountability Office's Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test this year, an increase of 16 per cent from 2010.
 
“It was amazing,” said principal Wayne Fletcher. “It was obviously a cause for celebration because we put in a lot of hard work and then to see that kind of change was great.”

Westgate Collegiate and Vocational Institute scored the highest in Thunder Bay at 91 per cent; St. Ignatius High School hit 84 per cent; Sir Winston Churchill Collegiate and Vocational Institute scored 80 per cent – a number they’ve held for the past four years. Hammarskjold High School had 79 per cent of students passing and St. Patrick High School had 77. The provincial average is 83.

Fletcher attributed the jump to efforts from the whole school – staff and students.

“There was a lot of work done in each individual class looking at promoting various parts of the literacy that they would be tested on, particularly their writing, and that we incorporated into all our class structures,” he said. “We also worked individually with some of our students we knew would have the most difficulty.”

Lakehead Public Schools superintendent of education Sherri-Lynne Pharand also attributed the board’s four high schools’ results to the hard work and dedication of the students and staff.

Over the last five years, the board has improved their average from 79-to-83 per cent and Pharand said they’re pleased with that progress, especially since that puts them on par with the province.

“Over the past couple of years, what we have done is we work really hard in Grade 9 and we have a pre-test for students in Grade 9 in order to identify those students who may require some additional support before the (test),” she said, adding the emphasized focus on the OSSLT is because it is a graduation requirement.

Lakehead Public Schools also has literacy leads in each of its secondary schools and they meet monthly to share best practices. The board also focuses on literacy across the entire curriculum.

“Literacy is not just about reading and writing,” Pharand said. “It’s about thinking and communicating.”

“All of that work, I think, has positioned our students to be successful on the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test,” she added.

A representative from the Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board was not available for comment.