2. Today’s Outcomes
understand the importance of evidence-based decision making in improving student learning
learn more about EQAO as a source of information for evidence-based decision making
become familiar with the EQAO assessments as an authentic measure of student learning outcomes
learn about educator resources that support school improvement planning and instructional decisions
The outcomes for today’s presentation are: (see slide)
Major shifts in culture, including the global economy, changing workplace, and demand for accountability have had an impact on education. The education needed by graduates has changed and with it the demands on our schools to provide that education. The school system has become accountable to provide evidence that students are acquiring the necessary learning outcomes to succeed.

3. Reach Every Student: Energizing Ontario Education
High levels of student achievement
Reduced gaps in student achievement
Increased confidence in publicly funded education
Each school day, over two million students attend Ontario’s publicly funded schools. Everyone who works in education, teachers and support workers, and everyone in our government, shares the same hope for Ontario’s students. Our commitment is to every student. This means both “raising the bar,” to encourage the absolute highest achievement from our students, and “closing the gap,” to ensure that we develop strategies to help every student learn, no matter their personal circumstances.
Common goals of Ontario Education are:
High levels of student achievement
Going deeper and wider on literacy and numeracy
Continuing innovation in secondary schools
Reduced gaps in student achievement
Reducing the gaps in achievement for those groups of students who, for whatever reason, need extra help
Increased confidence in publicly funded education
Fostering greater two-way engagement with the public to inform the implementation of the mandate to foster public confidence
Strengthening the role of schools as the heart of communities
Recognizing the pivotal role of schools in developing the workforce and citizens of tomorrow
The bottom line is that we are morally obligated to improve student achievement.

4. What would it take to ensure student achievement increases at every grade level, subject area, and with every student group?
Challenges
Action Plans
What would it take to ensure student achievement increases at every grade level, subject area, and with every student group? As lifelong learners, educators recognize that their professional practice continues to evolve as they reflect and act on new information. All teachers share a common goal: to see every student succeed.
Evidence-based education is a paradigm by which educators use empirical evidence to make informed decisions about policies, practices, and programs. “Evidence-based” decision making is emphasized over “opinion-based” decision making. It would seem strange if any professional made educational decisions 'just because’ and hoped that student performance would improve. The concept behind evidence-based approaches is that educational programs, practices and policies should be evaluated to prove whether they work, and the results should be fed back to influence these areas.
There are effective ways to work with information to improve student achievement. If educators have information that helps them confidently identify the root of educational challenges and track progress, they can more readily develop action plans that will have a positive impact on the learning outcomes of their students.

5. Where do we use evidence-based decision making in our own personal and professional lives?
Evidence-based practice should be a problem-solving approach that integrates a systematic search for, and critical appraisal of, the most relevant evidence to answer a burning question. In the medical world, they define it as a type of informal decision-making that combines clinical expertise, patient concerns, and evidence gathered from scientific literature to arrive at a diagnosis and treatment recommendations.
Activity - Turn to the person beside you and consider areas where we use evidence-based decision making in our own personal and professional lives. Have participants share in large group.
Making decisions based on data is very common for all of us-- weather reports, grocery prices, stock markets, and doctor's visits all involve data. For centuries, medical practice has been based mostly on clinical experience and judgment. More recently, evidence-based decision making in medicine has been the result of tremendous growth in biomedical science and innovation; development of the evaluative clinical sciences; advances in communication and IT; and growing recognition that evidence-based decision making provides a framework for addressing health care policy challenges. Think about business managers - Whether it's about the best way to market a new product, ensure the success of a merger, or maintain staff motivation during downsizing, managers use information and evidence to help inform their decisions.

6. EQAO: An Historical Perspective
Established in 1996
Result of the recommendations by the Royal Commission on Learning
Created as an arms-length agency of the Ministry of Education
Governed by a Board of Directors appointed by Cabinet
In education, the worldwide drive for accountability has created an environment in which schools in all developed countries are expected to show an improvement in achievement often based on the result of large-scale assessments.
Ontario’s provincial testing program was created in 1996 as a result of the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Learning in large part because parents and the public demanded more accountability and called for an independent gauge of children’s learning and achievement. As a result, EQAO was established to administer province-wide tests to every student in the education system.

7. What is EQAO’s Mandate?
To assess all students according to the curriculum expectations in designated subjects and provide accurate, valid and objective information about their performance to:
Parents
Students
Schools
School boards
Ontario government
Public
EQAO is here to be of service to children and those who work closest to children – teachers and principals. We believe that children are entitled to the best education we can deliver. So it is a service that aims to provide the best possible opportunities for children to succeed and to ensure that children get the best possible supports and outcomes.
EQAO was established to gather information from - and account for - every student in the public education system. All partners in the education system rely on the information provided by the test results to help improve student learning and achievement.

8. What is the Value of Assessing All Students?
Recommendation of the Ontario Government’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts, 2010:
“EQAO should continue its policy of every child testing.”
We have been asked in our presentations about the value of assessing all students vs. doing a random sampling of students. The Ontario Gov’t has recommended that “EQAO should continue its policy of every child testing.”
Only tests that gather information from every students can:
Provide students and parents with information about individual student achievement in relation to the provincial standard and
Provide reliable achievement information at the school and board levels to inform improvement planning and resource allocation.
Random-sample testing cannot provide the level of information needed for school, board and student improvement planning or for local accountability. Before EQAO, provincial reviews were conducted using random samples of students. This approach was found to be lacking because it did not provide school boards with their own students’ results, and, therefore, provided no opportunity for local reflection and focused intervention for improvement. Many boards began to request that all their students participate in assessments so that more useful data could be obtained.
There is also a strong call from parents of all students, including those with special needs and English Language Learners, to be given the opportunity to write this assessment as a way to gather additional information on how their child is performing.
Note: The Standing Committee is an all-party legislative committee that reviews and reports to the House its observations and recommendations on the annual reports of Ontario’s Auditor General.

9. When do EQAO Assessments Take Place?
Primary (Grades 1-3) and Junior (Grades 4-6) Assessments: Reading, Writing & Mathematics
Grade 9 Assessment of Mathematics (Academic & Applied Programs)
Grade 10 Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT)
EQAO develops and administers tests at four key stages in a child’s education. (Use slide to review assessments.) How many of you have written an EQAO assessment or have a child who has written it?
These provincial tests assess cumulative knowledge and skills based on the expectations in The Ontario Curriculum, which are the foundation for success in all other areas of learning and in life beyond school.
As with regular classroom assessments, all students who are able to do so are expected to complete the provincial tests. For students with special education needs, some accommodations that are consistent with regular classroom assessment practices are permitted. Special provisions may be permitted for English language learners.
Value for Money: A concern has been expressed by some educators and the public about the cost of the assessments. Each year, the government spends $20 billion on the operation of school boards in Ontario. That’s more than $10,000 per student. EQAO operates the provincial testing program for only $17 per student (about $33 million in ). The Auditor-General of Ontario value-for-money audit of EQAO in 2009 confirmed that EQAO tests provide value for money.

10. How do the EQAO Assessments Link to The Ontario Curriculum?
All elementary and secondary EQAO assessments are linked directly to The Ontario Curriculum.
The Ontario Curriculum clearly articulates overall and specific expectations or learning outcomes that students are expected to achieve by the end of each grade level in each subject area and that are measurable and observable.
Each question on every EQAO test is based on learning expectations set out in The Ontario Curriculum documents, which is what teachers across the province are responsible for teaching in their classrooms every day.
If teaching is focused and instructional and assessment strategies are aligned to the expectations, students will have a better opportunity to demonstrate success.

11. Framework Documents Elementary and Secondary Framework Documents
The EQAO has developed Framework documents for the Primary, Junior, Grade 9 and OSSLT assessments for educators, parents and the general public to explain the assessments and how they relate to the Ontario Curriculum expectations.
These documents provide the “big picture” of the EQAO assessments – it’s everything you ever wanted to know about them.

12. Blueprint for EQAO Assessments
EQAO assessments are directly aligned to the learning outcomes or expectations in the Ontario curriculum for elementary and secondary.
This slide, taken from our Framework documents, shows that the reading assessment items are directly mapped to the reading expectations from the curriculum document.

13. “To be successful, all organizations need reliable, objective performance data. Students, parents, educators, policy makers and the public benefit from data that can be used to make reasonable judgments about how well schools are performing and to determine what changes need to be made to make schools better for all students.”
Marguerite Jackson, EQAO CEO

14. How is Student Achievement Reported? Primary/Junior Student Report
EQAO produces a wide variety of reports. This is an example of the Junior Division Student Report that is sent home to parents. This report shows how students have achieved the assessed learning outcomes in relation to the provincial standard. There is a lot of useful information on these reports that is used by parents and educators to improve student learning.

15. What Reports do Schools Receive?
This is an example of one of many reports that are sent to schools each September. The Detailed School Results, shown here, are the main source of information about student achievement.
For each of the provincial tests, schools and school boards receive detailed reports that show how students answered test questions and point to the curriculum areas that may need more attention. They also provide specific strategies to guide instruction.
The results provided by EQAO, when used with information used at the classroom, school and board levels, provide a more complete picture of how well students are meeting the reading, writing and math expectations or outcomes outlined in the curriculum. These results have become key ingredients in helping schools, boards and the province to identify students’ strengths and areas for improvement.
The information provided helps assess how well students are learning the curriculum and to identify the need for next steps.

16. Summary of Results and Strategies for Teachers
The Summary of Results and Strategies for Teachers is released to schools every September. There is one for P/J, Grade 9 and OSSLT. (Show it)
This document is based on an analysis of student performance in the current year’s assessments. It lists observations by teacher scorers and suggested strategies for improvement. It is cross-referenced with extensive examples of available resources from the Ministry of Education, the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat and other sources including media.
For example, under Differentiated Instruction, it provides the names of webcasts with their links and exact page references in various resources related to the topic you are investigating.

17. What information does EQAO provide?
The various EQAO reports provide a wide variety of data. Contextual data includes demographics. Attitudes and Behaviour data tells us what our students think about themselves as learners. Student Achievement data provides evidence of student learning.
This information is a source used for evidence-based decision making.
Teachers use the data to inform classroom practice and programming for students.
Schools use the data to guide and focus their School Improvement Planning, which will lead to improved student achievement.
3. Last year’s teacher questionnaire results show that over 80% of Grades 3 and 6 teachers use EQAO data to identify how well students are meeting curriculum expectations and to identify areas for improvement in their programs.

18. News release Pinewood Public School, Dryden
“A positive impact on student achievement must begin with an examination of data that informs instruction, and subsequently guides school improvement planning.”
—Max Bernauer, Principal
Each year EQAO profiles schools that are representative of many dedicated schools across the province that are using EQAO and other data to determine areas of focus for their improvement plans. These schools are notable for their leadership, evidence-informed strategies, tracking student progress and whole-school approaches to helping every child succeed. Although faced with their own unique circumstances, each profiled school has adopted an action plan to work toward improved student outcomes using provincial assessment results as a guide. Furthermore it is evident that these schools have made a firm commitment to evidence-based decision making in support of student progress.
The principal of Pinewood PS in Dryden states that: “A positive impact on student achievement must begin with an examination of data that informs instruction, and subsequently guides school improvement planning.”

19. Changes in Teacher Practice and School Culture
As a result of using data to drive educational decision making, teachers report:
• greater differentiation of instruction
• greater collaboration among staff
• increased sense of teacher efficacy
• improved identification of students’
learning needs
Using Data to Improve Student Achievement 2008
Research has found that school effectiveness is strongly associated with the effective use of data at both the school and classroom levels.
Read slide.

20. What is a School Improvement Plan?
The SIP is a road map that sets out the changes a school needs to make in order to improve the level of student achievement and shows how and when these changes will be made.
The school improvement planning process is the essential mechanism that translates the analysis of evidence into a plan to change instruction and to improve student learning outcomes and results.
It is the link joining collected information to changing what goes on in classrooms and the school.

21. School Self-Assessment
Consider:
Are we reaching our student learning and achievement goals?
How do we know? What is the quantitative and qualitative evidence that supports this?
What actions will we take to ensure continuous improvement?
When doing school improvement planning, school staff would consider these questions: (Use slide)
Evidence-based improvement planning, when used effectively, becomes a powerful tool in improving student achievement and becomes part of the culture of a school. Through the use of evidence to determine SMART goals, teams can become much more focused on the details of improvement and will be able to show more clearly the progress that is being made in improving student outcomes.

22. Where do I Find EQAO Resources?
1. I now want to take you to the EQAO web site and highlight some of the many resources that schools use to support their work.

23. EQAO Web-site
This is the EQAO home page as it currently appears on our web-site.
The red circle highlights Educator Resources.
On the left side, you find Quick Links to: (read from slide)
The Spotlight on the right side of the screen highlights new resources. Here you will notice Research Bulletin #11, which describes the factors that are related to student achievement on the EQAO Grade 9 Assessment of Mathematics.

24. Educator Resources @ www.eqao.com
Framework Documents (Chapter 6: Blueprint)
Understanding the Levels of Achievement
Curriculum Connections
Administration Guide and Guide for Accommodations & Special Provisions and Exemptions
Student Assessment Booklets & Scoring Guides
Rubrics
Classroom Tips
Summary of Results and Strategies for Teachers,
Resources to Use with Parents
EQAO has produced a wide variety of resources to support educators in their practice.
These are just a few of the resources on our web-site.

25. Curriculum Connections
The elementary and OSSLT Curriculum Connections documents demonstrate the links between the reading and writing knowledge and skills that are tested on the OSSLT and some of the overall and specific expectations in the primary, junior and Grades 7, 8 and 9 Ontario Curriculum documents.

26. Understanding the Levels of Achievement
These resources were developed to assist teachers in identifying their students’ strengths and areas that need improvement and in observing trends related to thinking and learning skills in each subject. Teachers will be able to use this resource to inform their own classroom assessments and to observe trends in student performance in order to help plan instruction that will support student improvement.

27. contextualized becomes UNDERSTANDING transferred is INTELLIGENCE
DATA
organized is
INFORMATION
analyzed is
KNOWLEDGE
contextualized becomes
UNDERSTANDING
transferred is
INTELLIGENCE
used with Integrity is
WISDOM
In summary ……..

28. Questions and Answers
Do you have additional questions?