The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

the economist sunsuntribune education saturday nov 22 2003 school at loss to explain top marks 1 by mitchell brown i staff writer maybe theres something in the cupcakes doug grant principal of st patrick catholic elementary school in markham is at a loss to explain what makes his school any different from others in the region ctertainly its a small school and that helps to create a homey atmos phere he said referring to the schools relatively small population of 320 students not that a large school cant be homey but its easi er when im able to know every stu dent by their first name hes proud of his schools music program and noted its running club boasts a large number of partici pants but the same could be said for several other schools he said we do a lot of things at the school to encourage t literacy and numeracy but we dont consider ourselves out of the m ordinary in that regard he also pointed with pride to the schools regular cupcake sales wriere students and their parents taketiirns baking cupcakes selling them for 25 cents apiece to the rest of the school and giving the proceeds to charity again something very similar to what other schools in the region do every week indeed if thereis a secret to how his grade 6 students scored the regions top rharks on the most recent provincial reading writing and math tests no one is talking of the 3700 grade 3 and 3600 grade 6 york catholic district school board students who participated in tests last may students at st justin martyr ces and st patrick ces both in markham scored well enough to move to the head of the class icx full 100 per cent of the grade 3 students at st justin passed the reading test 94 per cent passed the writing portion and 100 per cent passed the math test while st patricks grade 6 students achieved 93100 wd 100 in the same subjects respectively we do a lot of things at the school to encourage literacy and numeracy but we dont consider ourselves out of the ordinary in that regard mr grant said referring to the book clubs and bringabook slumber parties held in the gym parents are generally pleased to see high marks on these tests mr grant said as evidenced by the warm reception they received at a recent school council meeting however he cautions them to consider the scores from the education quality and accounting office as just one of several indica tors of how schools are doing asen- timent with which eqao chairper son jerry ponikvar can agree educators should continue to analyse eqao achievement and contextual data for instance data on student attitudes toward reading languages spoken at home and whether or not pupils attended pre- school and develop strategies that target areas and groups in need of additional support and improve ment mr ponikvar said inere are many factors involved in good improvement planning he added including adequate resources welltrained teachers parental involvement and school board policies this past spring about 141000 grade 3 and 145000 grade 6 stu dents across the province took part in the latest round of testing by tiie eqao an armslength government agency that monitors student achievement students taking the eqao tests were graded oh a scale of one to four with four being tile highest and three meaning the child usual ly demonstrates expected knowl edge understanding and applica tion of skills pertaining to that part ticular subject the scores reflect the percentage of students in a particular school that achieved at least a level three on the test 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 scaleofohe 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 ranking purposes level three is the provincial standard scores are reported using eqaos method 2 results meaning only those students whdwrbtewetetsafeihdudedinther were eligible to write the test but were deferred or absent on the day the test was given are not included statistics compiled by the york region newspaper group using information provided by the york catholic district school board rankschool reading wrtsng math avg grade 3 1 st justin martyr u 100 2 st patrick m 100 3 st angela merici w 96 4 st francis of assbl w 100 5 our lady of grace a 89 6 st joseph rh 83 7stagnesofasslsiw80 8 st rene goupilth 79 9 st joseph the worker th 81 10 canadian martyrs n 77 11 st patrick kt 78 12 our lady of peace ma 71 13 st mary immaculate rh 76 14 st benedict m 78 15 blessed trinity ma 75 16 st mlchaelth 76 17 st brigm ws 76 18 good shepherd n 76 19 kateritekakwitha m 67 20 st catherine of siena w 81 21 st joseph m 67 22 our lady of the rosary c 78 23 st paul n i v 72 24 our lady of ratima w 62 25 ughtof chrfsta 71 26 bishop scalabrinlth 63 27 st marftkr 81 28 st vincent de paulm 62 29 stanthorth v 67 30 st mark ws 64 31 our lady of annunciation rh 72 32 our lady of good counsel eg 76 33 st matthew u 62 34 holy jubilee ma 60 35 st gabriel the archangel w 65 36 st charles gamier rh 63 37 st edward m 67 38 holy spirit a 66 39 john xxiii u 59 40 notre dame n 64 41 st monica m 58 42 st clement w 60 43 st peter w 1 68 44 corpus christ rh 62 45 father john kelly ma 53 46 st andrew w 59 47 san marco w 60 48 st joseph a 57 49 christ the king rh 51 50ststephenw64 94 100 98 94 94 96 88 100 95 83 100 94 86 94 90 92 92 89 86 86 84 84 89 84 76 93 83 81 89 82 78 88 81 75 96 81 79 83 79 73 84 78 78 81 78 76 80 77 66 89 77 68 86 77 85 78 77 72 75 76 80 a a iovi 76 70 74 74 65 85 74 72- 87 74 75 74 73 87 68 73 55 82 73 87 69 73 74 70 70 75 72 70 74 63 70 62 71 70 72 75 70 72 73 68 70 70 68 63 77 68 69 67 68 70 v 64 67 66 75 67 65 69 66 83 57 66 57 a a ovaa 66 56 70 65 69 62 64 67 72 64 68 a a 65a a 64 60 69 63 64 68 63 a 65 72 63 64 60 63 rankschool reading writing matt avg okiitnviitli appliance ltd 9054720021 51 st emily w 59 52 st nicholas n 65 53 st clare w 56 54 sir richard w scott m 54 55 rather henri ncuwenrh 59 56 st thomas aquinas k 57 57 mother theresa m 59 58 holy family th 40 59 st david ma 53 60 all saints m 46 61 st anne rh 50 62 st john boscow 53 63 our lady help of christians rh 44 64 st elizabeth seton n 54 65 st gregory the great w 43 66 our lady of hope rh 54 67 st francis xavier m 43 68 prince of peace k 41 69 st margaret mary w 47 70 hoty name kt y 41 t 71 st james ma lz 51 72 dmne mercy ma v 40 73 immaculate conception w 33 74 st bernadette g 24 75stlukethlvvv cv22 board average 63 grade 6 provincial average 53 1 st patrick m 93 2stangela meridw 100 3 john xxiii 0 96 4 st vincent de paul m 96 5 st justin martyr u 89 6 katerilekakwltha m 90 7 mother theresa m 91 8 st clement w 89 9 all saints m 81 10 st agnes of assist w 84 11 st mlchaelth 79 12 st rene goupiith 73 13 canadian martyrs n 80 14 father henri nouwen rh 85 15j st edward m 80 16 st francis of assbl wl 82 17 christ the king rh 77 18 st monica m 82 19 good shepherd n 90 20 st anthony th 77 21 st brigm ws 82 22 our lady of good counsel eg 82 23 st matthew u 71 24 st charles gamier rh 84 25 st mary kt 84 26 notre dame n 76 f cgmnrunltv caisbjtai 68 57 61 73 46 61 68 59 61 65 63 61 70 52 60 78 42 59 62 54 58 69 60 56 67 49 56 57 63 55 65 51 55 62 50 55 69 48 54 45 60 53 64 52 53 57 46 52 65 49 52 55 59 52 65 38 50 59 47 49 57 34 47 48 44 44 45 48 42 48 40 37 44 22 29 70 69 67 59 60 57 100 100 98 88 100 96 92 96 95 89 93 93 89 93 90 85 95 90 88 88 89 85 83 86 76 93 83 84 82 83 81 87 82 87 87 82 73 91 81 n 82 81 80 83 81 68 93 81 88 77 81 82 76 80 79 70 80 75 86 79 76 79 79 59 95 79 82 79 77 66 81 77 67 79 77 73 76 75 rankschool reading writing matt avg 27 st francis xavier m 69 79 77 75 28 corpus chrisurh 70 75 77 74 29 st benedfct m 71 61 90 74 30 st eibabeth seton n 74 74 73 74 31 st joseph rh 81 77 60 73 32 st gabriel the archangel w 74 79 64 72 33 st mary immaculate rh 76 73 67 72 34 wrkvv scott 73 71 71 72 35 our lady of grace a 76 76 56 69 36 st patrick kt 80 48 80 69 37 our lady help of chrishans rh 80 72 55 69 38 our lady of annunciation rh 73 73 61 69 39 st gregreaw 72 65 70 69 40 st joseph fk- 73 666668 41stpeterw 64 62 79 68 42 light of christ a 63 74 67 68 43 st anne rh 77 70 57 68 44 our lady of peace ma 73 73 57 68 45stemdyw 65 67 7067 46 hoy family th 69 62 69 67 47 st stephen w 79 52 69 67 48 hoty name kt 59 66 72 66 49 st davm ma 63 71 63 66 50 our lady of fatimaw 68 63 62 64 51 st bernadette g 69 56 65 63 52 st joseph the workerth 62 71 57 63 53 st paul n v 68 62 60 63 54 st mark ws 80 44 64 63 55 san marco w 60 60 67 62 56 blessed trinity ma 61 64 61 62 57 father john kelly ma 63 65 57 62 58 hofy spirfta fi 61 64 58 61 59 bishop scaiabrinlth 64 57 61 61 60dmnemercyma59 60 5357 61 st josepha 55 55 62 57 62 our lady of hope rh 65 61 44 57 63 st catherine of siena w 55 50 64 56 64 prince of peace k 57 55 51 54 65 hofy jubilee ma 64 57 41 54 66 st margaret mary w 54 57 50 54 67 our lady of the rosary c 45 60 55 53 68 immaculate conception w 56 56 44 52 69 st nicholas n 51 54 49 51 70stjohnboscow 47 53 53 51 71 st clare w 49 61 40 50 72 st james ma v 44 59 47 50 73 st thomas aquinas k 48 50 42 47 74 st luketh 36 64v 36 45 75 st andrew w 42 41 i 26 36 board average 71 69 69 70 provincial average 58 57 56 57 legend a aurora c concord eg east gwillimbury g georg ia k keswick kt- king township m markham ma maple n newmarket rh- richmond hill th thomhill u unionville v vbughan v wlirtchurchstoufmlle w wbodbridge 4995 for safety and efficiency your dryer should be thoroughly cleaned at least once every twp yearsi call for appointment 176 bullock drive markham blivds bnoadloom tiles vlnyt fiooiukg srkjsfek w- m i ic r wti jfrsi s tsz22sfmf irvvw mymarfcamcs sgwwrtr v9q5i iilltfclrllrivi 5fi3 rtrj