Oakwood village school’s new EQAO Maths results shines above the rest

Though only twenty per cent of students in J.R. Wilcox Community School in Oakwood Village met the Maths standard this year, that number is up four per cent from previous test scores in 2013 and 2014, according to EQAO results.

According to reports, Toronto District School Board students failed to meet the provincial standard for math scores as revealed by the EQAO test result.

Reports added that sixty seven per cent of Grade three students throughout the TDSB met the math standard, compared to seventy one per cent between 2013 and 2014 and Grade six students scored fifty-five per cent, compared with fifty nine per cent between 2013 and 2014.

The TDSB’s Grade six scores revealed that only about fifty per cent of Grade six students in Ontario met the standard.

Extra workshops and additional professional development days for teachers pertaining to math had become mandatory for schools across the province as of September, 2016, reports said.

The staff of J.R. Wilcox Community School in Oakwood Village said that the above two factors were the main causes for the rise in Maths scores, according to the reports.

According to reports, some schools still preferred rote learning techniques, based on repetition for memorization, rather than discovery learning. But TDSB director of education and education minister were of the opinion that a balance of both methods should be used to raise Maths scores, reports added.

A part of this year’s funding of $60 million being granted for Maths scores in Grades one to eight, would go towards increasing the amount of time spent on math to sixty minutes per day, reports confirmed.

Other recommendations of the reports were the appointment of three “math lead teachers” in every elementary school and an annual day dedicated to professional development of Maths skills.

Speaking from J.R. Wilcox on Wednesday, Education Minister Mitzie Hunter said, “I believe that this is why we have a priority and a focus on the math strategy starting this month, at the beginning of the school year,” reports said.

(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)