Centretown elementary students are still falling behind the rest of the class in the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, according to standardized test results released Wednesday by Ontario’s Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO).
Despite increases in the percentage of students performing at or above the provincial standard on the tests, the neighbourhood’s elementary schools faired worse in 2009-2010 assessments for reading, writing and math than the average of schools across the board.
On average, 65 per cent of Grade 3 students in the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board performed at or above the provincial standard on reading tests. In comparison, only 60 per cent of Elgin Street Primary School students, 52 per cent of Cambridge Street Primary School students and a low 36 per cent of Centennial students performed equally well on reading tests.
Likewise, 70 per cent of Grade 3 students across the school board performed at or above average on writing tests, while only 40 per cent of Elgin Street students, 52 per cent of Cambridge Street students and 55 per cent of Centennial students faired as well.
But Jennifer McKenzie, trustee for the Somerset Ward for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, said she still believes these schools have high academic standards. “You have to take into consideration socioeconomic and demographic factors,” McKenzie said.
One demographic explanation the results show is that these schools have a higher percentage of students born outside Canada. The high number of students who don't speak English as their first language is also a possible explanation for the poor results.
All three schools performed better in mathematics, although only Elgin Street students met the board average at 70 per cent.
And results have improved by as much as 39 percentage points since 2005-2006.
McKenzie credited this positive trend to the school improvement plans that have been put in place for the schools with poor results.
“I’m sure we will start seeing more results of the efforts put in soon,” said McKenzie.