News Releases

TDSB Student Literacy Rate Jumps 14% in Three Years

Toronto, ON, Thursday, June 15, 2006—According to results released yesterday by the Province, Toronto District School Board (TDSB) Grade 10 literacy scores are up by 4 percent over last year. The increase comes on the heels of three years of improvement in TDSB students’ scores overall, up 14 percent since 2002/03 and steadily improving at a faster rate than the province.

In 2002/03, the number of students who were successful the first time they wrote the test was 66 percent. This year the first time pass rate is 80 percent. When students who pass on subsequent attempts are factored into the mix, the result is that more than 90% of TDSB students are acquiring literacy skills they will need to be successful whatever career pathway they choose.

“This is very good news,” said Gerry Connelly, Director of Education. “It means that the programs and initiatives we have been putting in place to support student achievement are working in most cases but we must continue to focus on improvement.”

The TDSB’s emphasis has been on providing support to groups who are underachieving, such as boys, students whose mother tongue is not English, and in some cases students in applied level programs.

“We have been working to identify factors that contribute to lower success rates among students and have developed strategies to address them at both the school and system-wide levels,” Connelly added.

Connelly also credits the TDSB’s significant strides to the tools and training given to educators as they implement a variety of literacy initiatives across the grades. In particular, paying greater attention to helping students through the difficult transition year from elementary to secondary school and increasingly directing resources into targeted programs such as after-school and summer school literacy programs has paid significant, measurable dividends in terms of student success.

TDSB staff will be reviewing and analyzing the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) results to develop a Board Action Plan specifically evaluating the 20 percent of first time eligible students who didn’t pass the test. Each school will be evaluating their individual results and develop a plan with strategies tailored to the needs of its students.

The Ontario Secondary School Literacy Assessment (OSSLT) measures how well students are meeting provincial expectations in reading and writing ability. Of the nearly 20,000 TDSB students writing the test for the first time this year, 80 percent were successful in both reading and writing.

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