stoufiville suntribune thursday oct 27 2005 3 parental involvement boosts eqao rank most york catholic students top average caroline grech staff writer st andrew catholic school in woodbridge was not at the very top of the rankings in this years eqao tests but the provincewide standard ized tests showed something even more important dramatic improvement since the 20012002 school year the school had been consis tently below average in all cate gories but this year every category saw improvements of 30 per cent last year only 38 per cent of the schools grade 6 students were at the provincial standard or better this year that figure is 90 per cent also last year 46 per cent of st andrew students were at the provincial standard in grade 6 writing this year its 76 per cent principal elena naccarato who is new to the school said the scores were what she expected she attributed the improve ments to a strong parent commu nity who volunteer for reading pro grams and support school initia tives as well as a new approach to math nelson mathematics now part of the curriculum at the school is a more languagebased way to teach elementary students and scores have improved since the school adopted that approach ms naccarato said with all our teachers working together with our parents help we can achieve these goals ms naccarato said its a really good combination of things all of our teachers are on the same page and they have a shared vision st justin martyr catholic school principal christine kwiatkowski the work isnt finished however maintaining what weve achieved is our main goal ms naccarato said stressing the eqao scores are not the only gauge for student improvement ms naccarato said the scores will be used to see what areas can be improved and improvement is the name of the game even at st justin martyr catholic elementary school where students earned top marks in the york catholic district school board the unionville schools grades 3 and 6 students have consistently mastered the tests with 90 per cent meeting or exceeding the provincial standard every year since 2001 this year in grade 3 reading 95 per cent are at the provincial stan dard or higher in writing 98 per cent of the students are at the provincial standard or better and in math 100 per cent of the stu dents are at the provincial stan dard or better the grade 6 score was equally impressive with 96 per cent meet ing standards in reading 95 per cent in writing and 93 per cent in math the scores are well above both the provincial and board averages for the same subjects but principal christine kwiatkowski insists there is no magic to the scores its a really good combination of things all of our teachers are on the same page and they have a shared vision she said despite stellar scores the job isnt finished ms kwiatkowski stressed its never good enough while with all our teachers working together with our parents help we can achieve these goals st andrew catholic school principal elena naccarato we celebrate the scores we have kids in level 3 and we want to take a look and see what we can do to elevate them to level 4 she said according to eqao testing stu dents who are at level 3 are meet ing the provincial standard and students at level 4 are above the provincial average taking a closer look at the num bers there are students below the provincial standard and the next task is to try and bring those stu dents up to the provincial level as well ms kwiatkowski said a common pattern is girls are outscoring boys in reading and writing by large margins at st justin martyr the gap is smaller something ms kwiatkowski attributes to a con centrated effort to find reading material more appealing to boys the results these scores indicate how each york catholic school performed on grades 3 and 6 testing last year for reading writing and math students were graded on a scale of one to four with four being the highest the numbers reflect the percentage of students who finished at levels three and four percentages were averaged for rank ing purposes level three is the provincial standard scores are reported using eqaos method 2 results meaning only those students who wrote the tests are included in the results students who were eligible to write the test but were deferred or absent on the day the test was given are excluded statistics compiled by york region newspaper group using information provided by the york catholic district school board legend a aurora eg east gwillimbury g georgina k keswick kt king township m markham ma maple n newmarket rh- richmond hill th thomhill v vaughan w woodbridge ws whitchurchstouffville rankschool reading writing grade 3 1 st justin martyr m 95 98 2 st patricksch 96 96 3 stemilyw 93 96 4 canadian martyrs n 86 89 5 all saints m 81 91 6 kateritekakwfflia m 85 91 7 st michaelth 79 91 8 stangelica merle w 84 80 9 st 6regoryw 69 92 10 our lady of annunciation rh 85 82 11 sr richard w scott m 80 89 12 st patrick m 78 89 13 st paul n 79 83 14 our lady of good council eg 84 68 15 our lady of good grace a 80 80 16 st john chrysosthon n 81 83 17 st joseph m 71 82 18 st monica m 76 86 19 our lady help of christians rh 81 79 20 pope john paul ii rh 81 81 21 st joseph the worker th 82 80 22 good shepherd n 78 83 23 our lady of the rosary v 74 80 24 light of christa 74 77 25 st anne rh 72 74 26 st benedict m 66 83 27 0urladyoffatimaw 66 80 28 st andrew w 70 79 29 st francis of assislw 78 75 30 stbrigld ws 76 71 31 st clemerrt w 68 79 32 immaculate conception w 65 78 33 stantfknyth 69 72 34 st james ma 69 80 35 holy name kt 60 80 36 st gabriel w 59 76 37 christ the king rh 61 72 38 our lady of peace ma 64 77 39 st matthew m 73 65 40 st rene goupilst luketh 68 76 41 st agnes of asslsl w 69 73 42 st nicholas n 62 64 43 our lady of hope rh 59 75 44 st john boscow 59 80 45 st martcws 65 75 46 corpus christ rh 59 68 47 st edward m 51 74 48stjosepha 63 63 49 st joseph rh 63 67 50 st david ma 64 68 51 father henri nouwen rh 57 75 52 holy famllyth 53 78 math aug 100 98 96 96 93 94 92 89 90 87 85 87 88 86 91 85 95 85 85 84 80 83 81 83 86 83 95 82 86 82 79 81 89 81 82 81 79 80 79 80 78 80 76 79 82 79 82 78 85 77 80 76 81 76 76 75 72 75 76 74 74 74 75 73 79 73 71 73 76 72 80 72 81 71 72 71 75 71 68 71 69 70 83 70 73 69 68 69 65 68 75 67 74 66 72 66 67 66 62 65 59 64 60 64 rankschool reading writing 53 mother teresa m 58 68 54 st catherine of siena 54 65 55 st francis xavier m 53 75 56 st peterw 55 65 57 father john kelly ma 58 71 58 st mary kt 58 74 59 st mary immaculate rh 58 54 60ststephenw 63 67 61 dmne mercy ma 49 70 62 notre dame n 60 63 63 st clarew 58 63 64 blessed trinity ma 49 63 65 prince of peace k 45 52 66 holy jubilee ma 55 70 67 st charles gamier rh 56 46 68 st elizabeth seton n 50 50 69 st vincent de paul m 48 68 70 st margaret mary w 44 60 71 holy spirit a 57 47 72 san marcow 39 57 73 bishop scalabrlnl 41 47 76 st thomas aquinas k 44 40 board average 66 73 provincial average 59 61 grade 6 1 st justin martyr m 96 95 2 mother teresa m 92 92 3 stangelica mericlw 96 96 4 st michael 93 91 5 christ the king rh 91 89 6 all saints m 89 85 7 st vincent de paul m 92 92 8 stgregoryw 83 92 9 st joseph m 83 85 10 st joseph a 90 79 11 st john chrysosthon n 82 84 12 st agnes of asslsl w 85 79 13 st benedict m 80 88 14 st elizabeth seton n 87 80 15 st anne rh 93 68 16 st andrew w 80 76 17 st edward m 80 82 18 st patrick m 87 87 19 st gabriel w 83 79 20 our lady of annunciation rh 79 86 21 st anthony 80 71 22 canadian martyrs n 73 75 23 bishop scalabrlnl to 74 83 24 blessed john xxiii m 81 75 25 holy name kt 80 71 math avg 68 64 73 64 65 64 73 64 60 63 58 63 76 63 60 63 63 61 60 61 60 60 58 57 73 57 43 56 63 55 66 55 50 55 54 53 53 52 55 50 59 49 51 45 72 68 66 62 93 95 97 94 90 94 97 94 93 91 93 89 83 89 83 86 85 86 88 86 89 85 87 84 85 84 85 84 88 83 90 82 80 81 92 81 79 80 71 79 86 79 85 78 74 77 75 77 80 77 rankschool reading writing 26 st patrick kt 85 71 27 st emily w 75 75 28 father henri nouwen rh 78 71 29 our lady help of christians rh 75 76 30 st francis xavlar m 75 70 31 st monica m 72 74 32 st mathew m 76 72 33 st stephenw 73 76 34 corpus christj rh 74 70 35 notre dame n 75 70 36 st brigld we 73 73 37 st francis of asslsl w 78 72 38 divine mercy ma 71 76 39 our lady of grace a 77 62 40 st clare w 76 74 41 st clementw 72 66 42 st joseph the worker to 71 70 43 st paul n 69 67 44 kateritekakwftha m 60 80 45 our lady of fatima w 72 70 46 st lady of the rosary v 7573 47 pope john paul ii rh 70 65 48 our lady of peace ma 74 65 49 st mary immaculate rh 73 69 50 st thomas aquinas k 74 66 51 our lady of good council eg 74 56 52 sir richard scott m 74 70 53 st david ma 68 71 54 st rene goupilst luke to 62 66 55 good shepherd n 74 67 56 immaculate conception w 71 74 57 st margaret mary w 80 67 58 st john bosco w 77 57 59 st mary kt 73 64 60 light of christa 65 57 61 st catherine w 68 61 62 st nicholas n 64 64 63 holy splrita 63 55 64 our lady of hope rh 64 49 65 st charles gamier rh 54 63 66 st joseph rh 59 52 67 st markws 53 57 68 san marco w 58 61 69 father john kelly ma 56 56 70stpeterw 53 62 71 blessed trinity ma 57 58 72 holy famllyto 46 65 73 holy jubilee ma 55 62 74 st james ma 51 54 75 st bemadette g 58 55 76 prince of peace k 45 40 board average 74 71 provincial average 63 59 math avg 76 77 77 76 75 75 73 75 79 75 78 75 74 74 73 74 74 73 74 73 73 73 68 73 70 72 77 72 65 72 78 72 74 72 81 72 71 70 67 70 63 70 75 70 68 69 65 69 66 69 74 68 61 68 63 67 72 67 57 66 49 65 49 65 57 64 55 64 67 63 61 63 50 59 53 57 59 57 54 57 61 57 60 57 50 56 52 55 49 55 46 54 51 54 42 53 51 52 33 49 45 43 71 72 60 61