Achievement and SLP

Measures of Student Achievement and Success

Knoxdale is committed to academic and personal excellence for all our students. Our students perform very well academically and practice good citizenship. Student success is not only measured by their strong academic achievement but also by their personal well-being and demonstration of the character traits on the school board’s Community of Character wheel as well as the OCDSB's Exit Outcomes.

Student achievement is measured in many ways at Knoxdale. Observations, student tracking sheets, running reading records, parent-teacher interviews, phone calls home, participation in the provincial EQAO assessments for grades 3 and 6, and report cards are some of the means by which the school keeps track of student progress. PM Benchmarks and GB+ French language reading assessment is used at primary grade levels. Evaluation Rapide and CASI (French and English) reading assessments are used at the junior grade levels.

The data derived from these assessments is used to drive our staff development and teaching and assessment practices to improve student learning and achievement.

Our Grade 3 and 6 EQAO test score results are analyzed yearly to determine areas of strength and areas of need for our students in Literacy and Mathematics. Teachers at all grade levels then use the results of this analysis to focus instruction on the areas of need.

Our Junior students participate annually in a French public speaking contest (Concours d’art oratoire) at the school and board level. Their standing in these contests, which are judged by personnel outside the school, is consistently high. Many of our classes participate in the Dictée PGL. Our students have won at both the school and Eastern Ontario levels and have represented Knoxdale and the OCDSB at an International competition. Our Junior students participate in a variety of math contests, such as Pythagoras in grade 6 and Fibonacci in grade 5. Individual student and school-wide results are impressive. Our top notch interscholastic teams demonstrate fair play, outstanding sportsmanship and tremendous skill and win numerous medals and banners at the regional level.

School Learning Plans

This year, all schools in our district will have a School Learning Plan that focuses on numeracy. We have taken a great deal of time to look carefully at multiple sources of data in order to inform our thinking and next steps. This included EQAO data, report card data, and classroom data including observational data. As a staff we had the opportunity to ask ourselves some powerful questions in conjunction with a review of teaching practices and delivery of program.

One piece of evidence that we noted from our data was that our students struggled in the face of multi-step problems and/or difficult problems. In fact, there was a marked percentage of students who left answers blank and did not attempt (as compared with the board and province). As such, in conjunction with having a theory of action for our School Learning Plan that focuses on numeracy across the curriculum, we have also identified a need to work on Growth Mindset. This is tied to our theory of action, as well as, to our Student Well-Being Plan. 

The achievement chart below outlines four areas of academic assessment; Communication, Knowledge and Understanding, Application and Thinking. 

Image of Achievement Chart of Ontario

This achievement chart is applicable to all subject areas and is included as part of curricular documents. We also considered our data in light of the achievement chart to see where were our students’ strengths and areas for growth. We noted that our students needed to strengthen their skills in Thinking and Communication. To this end, we identified the following strategies:
1) Self-verbalization
2) Number talks
3) Accountable talk (which formed part of our previous SLP)

Other Initiatives:

  • Creating units of study that have overarching inquiry questions and embedded critical thinking challenges
  • Ongoing focus on problem solving skills in mathematics - using a common framework for problem solving "SOAR" 
  • Bringing out Math in all subject areas with a focus on mathematical language and mathematical processes
  • Continued use of manipulatives and other hands-on strategies in Mathematics Explicit teaching of Growth Mindset
  • A focus on character education School Environment team – recycling, composting, energy conservation audits and promotion, and Friday litterless lunches.
  • We are a Certified Ecoschool (Bronze) Multiple field trips and in-school presentations connected to the curriculum Visiting Scientists programs Professional Book Clubs for staff on effective practices in Literacy, Mathematics, assessment and differentiation
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