Sudbury Catholic District School Board Encouraged by Students’ Scores on Recent Provincial OSSLT’s

Grade 10 students from the Sudbury Catholic District School Board continue to score well on Ontario Secondary School Literacy Tests (OSSLT) written in March 2007. The Board’s overall success rate of 89 percent for “Fully Participating Students” was consistent with previous scores surpassing the Provincial average of 84 percent. Marymount Academy lead the charge with a 100 percent success rate for “Fully Participating Students” followed closely by St. Benedict CSS with 91 percent, St. Charles College with 88 percent and Bishop Carter CSS with an 83 percent pass rate.

The OSSLT, introduced in 2002, measures whether students are meeting the minimum standard for literacy across all subjects to the end of Grade 9, according to the expectations set out in The Ontario Curriculum. Meeting this standard is a requirement for obtaining an Ontario Secondary School Diploma and positions students for success in their life beyond high school.

Rossella Bagnato, Interim Director of Education for the Sudbury Catholic Board is thrilled with the efforts of her students. "We are extremely pleased with the test results of our
Grade 10 students," stated Bagnato. "The results from the Province of Ontario's EQAO Assessment testing indicate that our OSSLT plan is working and reflects admirably on our students, teachers, principals and parents."

Paula Peroni, Chair of the Sudbury Catholic Board is also encouraged by the Literacy Test results stating that, "Our mandate as trustees in conjunction with senior administration at the Board has always been and will continue to be, to provide our students with the tools ands resources that they require to receive the best education possible. The very fact that our secondary schools show an 89 percent pass rate which is 5 percent higher than the Provincial average is proof that we are on the right track and will continue to improve on these results."

Full details of these results are available at www.eqao.com.