Interpreting Performance Based Data
-- Huron Heights SS EQAO Report

Huron Heights Secondary School was opened in 1962. It is a public high school offering Grade 9 to Grade 12 curriculums in the York Region District School Board which is located in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada and serves students from the Newmarket and East Gwillimbury area. It is also home to the Regional Arts education program for North York Region, called Arts Huron, which provides students with a quality education in dance, drama, visual arts, technology, and music. This article is to analyzesis how Huron Heights SS students perform in mathematic courses according to the 2013-2014 assessment report data of Grade 9 Applied and Academic Mathematics subjects from the Educational Quality Accountability Office (EQAO) of Ontario. However, The EQAO results have limitations to see the school’s overall picture. This article will is also to discuss where the limitations are, how to dig deeply for more data and help the school to for its improvements, as well as for students’ achievements.
I. Meaningful Patterns in the Data
The 2013-2014 EQAO-Huron Heights report gives a good indication of how students performed relatively from 2009 to 2014, and relative to those throughout the board and the province. Some meaningful patterns are found in the data.
Applied Mathematics - The school report for Grade 9 Applied Math assessment results shows a decreasing trend of percentage points of students at or above the provincial standard at Huron Heights from 47% in 2011-2012 to37% in 2013-2014, while the board and province reports show increasing trends. For each school year starting in 2009, the school has a lower achievementing rate than the board, while the board has a higher rate than the province. In 2013-2014, there are only 37% of all students that meet the standard (Level 3&4), which is 20% lower than the board and 10% lower than the board ; There are 108 students enrolled in 2013-2014 Applied Math course , but 99 of them participated in the assessment, in which includes 43 female students and 56 male students. The participation rate has also dropped from 99% to 92% over 4 school years.
The additional cohort tracking report tracks individual students as they move through the school system and provides information on changes in student performance over time. The Tracking Student Achievement in Relation to the Provincial Standard Junior Division (Grade 6) in 2010-2011 to Grade 9 in 2013-2014, Mathematics Report shows 51% (44 out of 88) of the tracking cohort did not meet the standard in Grade 6 and did not in Grade 9 Applied Math course. Academic Mathematics – From the questionnaire report, it is found that students taking the academic course have a more positive attitude and motivation than those taking the applied course. There are 217students enrolled in the 2013-2014 Grade 9 Academic Math course. 63% (136 out of 217) of them are female students and 37% (81 out of 217) of are male students. It shows 76% of all students are achieving the provincial standard, which is 15% lower than those in the board and 9% lower than the province. The Tracking Student Achievement in Relation to the Provincial Standard Junior Division (Grade 6) in 2010-2011 to Grade 9 in 2013-2014, Applies Mathematics Report shows 64% (130 out of 204) of the tracking cohort meet the standard in Grade 6 and Grade 9 Academic Math course.
II. Key Questions that Remain Unanswered
Although the EQAQ report contains quantitative measures to indicate the percentage of students at or above the provincial standard, gender break down numbers and detailed data of students at each level and qualitative measures, such as student questionnaires to identify student attitudes toward math subjects, there are some key questions remain unanswered. Consider the following questions:
 What are the student strengths and weaknesses in learning math subjects?
 Why do female students have better performance than male students in Math?
 How teachers’ in-class teaching methods and strategies impact on student learning?
 How is the school climate influencinge student achievement?
 How does extra curriculaums help with student learning?
 Do student’s parents become involved in student learning math?
 Is the school leadership helping the school develop toward a positive direction?

III. Limitations of the Data
Firstly, for dDemographics data, the EQAO report only includes student achievement levels, enrollment and gender information. It is lack of student attendance, drop-out rate, and ethnicity information. It is hard to analyze about the school community and neighborhood influenceerence on students.
Secondly, from a perceptions point of view, only student questionnaires are used to find out student attitudes toward math. The datda does not contain their perception of the learning environment, school culture, values and beliefs, and observation. It neither shows any evidence about the school’s expectation towards student math learning nor teachers teaching skills and strategies.
Thirdly, for student learning, the only result is coming from the EQAO assessment; it should also look at student in-class work, teacher observations of abilities, etc. Student abilities and math course pathways need to be carefully examined. Finally, school process factors, such as discipline plan, district curriculum, student services, observation and monitoring of classroom practices are not found in the EQAO report data. No data shows in which way the school helps students for their improvement over years.
IV. Suggestions for Further Data Collection that will Help Answer these Questions
School leaders should use data, not hunches, to identify areas of challenge, improve instructional practices and improve student learning. The EQAO assessment result is like one piece of the puzzle and stresses that schools need to collect additional demographic, perceptual, student-learning and school-process data, as outlined in the “Multiple Measures of Data” chart below. EQAO assessment results need to be considered together with those of other school factor data in the following areas:
a) Demographics: This data set helps to realize the school itself. In Huron Heights’ case, the school can use quantitative methods analyzing student attendance record data to see how student attendances relates to their performance.
b) Perceptions: This data set answers the question “how is the school doing?” Qualitative methods will be useful in this area. Individual interviews with student and teacher will help to understand if the school has set high expectations for students and for teachers. It also helps to determine detailed reasons of student attitudes toward learning Math subject. Focus groups could be also arranged for students to discuss in which areas of the curriculum students show strength and weakness and to gather information on teacher opinion on in -class teaching. Student, staff and parent questionnaires also help to collect perspectives regarding to school operations.
c) Student learning: This data set answers the question “how are students doing in school?” Besides the EQAO assessment, student classroom exam marks and homework as well as other in-school assessment results are also need to be analyzed. These data are important because they show us what students are learning and help us understand what is being taught. Also, this information helps educators determine which students may need extra help and attention
d) School Process: This data set helps to answer the question “how effective areis the school processes?” observations reports needs to be considered to show how teachers’ skills and practices impact on student learning. These practices may include maximizing effective class instruction time, full preparation of lesson plans for all levels of students’ needs to make sure the school has a safe and positive school culture. Observation data need to be collected throughout the school years, then to have specialized considerations and discussion in specific areas. It is crucial to look at school-process data combined with student-learning data, as this will show if school programs are making a difference in student-learning results.
V. Overall Conclusions that can be Drawn
A school requires data in order to evaluate what is currently working and what areas require improvement, and uses this information to plan for the future. In this way, data predicts and prevents failure, ensuring success. In Huron Heights’s case, after analysis with the data set in the EQAO assessment report, it can be concluded that the Huron heights SS students perform below the province and YRDSB level for mathematics. subjects. The school administrators need to pay serious attention to the declininge trend of student performance and develop strategies to turn the situation around.
VI. Implications for the Development of strategies to improve student performance
Examining each of these sections of Huron Height EQAQ report in isolation and then in combination allows for a better understanding of the school community. This helps to predict and prepare the actions, processes, and programs that best meet the learning needs of all students. The followings are some suggested strategies to improve student performances:
a) Knowing Students’ Learning Needs
The Grade 9 math teachers need to have a better understanding of the learning students arewho were bringing from elementary school and middle school. They should work collaboratively to understand the Grades 6–8 math expectations in order to develop and implement common lesson plans at the beginning of Grade 9. This should be followed by a diagnostic assessment, which will allow every teacher to identify gaps in his or her student’sts’ learning and respond to their needs through differentiated programming . The school should also clearly introduce the expectations of Grade 9 math courses to students entering Grade 9 and take proper measures to ensure students are placed into the correct level of math course.
b) Technology in and out of the Classroom
According to the questionnaire results in EQAO, student use the internet most of the time. Huron Heights should encourage and train teachers to use technology tools to make the classroom an interesting place for students learning. The use of technology at Huron Heights should be embedded in everything that happens in the math program . The staff and students have embraced technology in a meaningful way. Through the use of technology, such as an electronic “smart board”, students can spend more time working on problems and less time on note taking in class, while teachers demonstrate solutions in a virtual class environment and save these solutions for future reference. Students can review them repeatedly as they need.
Teachers can develop class web sites that contain useful links to practice materials or even let students do their homework online. The student questionnaires in the EQAO report shows that 41% of students taking applied math course never take time to discuss their math assignments with their classmates and 49% of those only discuss with their class 1 or 2 times a month. More than 83% of the students answer that they use internet when they are not in school, so the schools should develop a program online for students discussions and teachers can have more group work assigned online to engage and help students learning together.
Teachers’ class instruction can be also videotaped with teacher’s permission and posted online, or maybe school website, for students access if they need extra help or additional practice , or if they are absent for the class.
c) Continue Math-Focused Learning Class
There are 10% of the tracking cohort students in applied math that met the standard in Grade 6 buit did not meet it in Grade 9 and 9% of the tracking cohort students in academic math have the same situation. A special math-focused general continuinge learning course needs to be designed for those struggling with math courses and to help them catch up, especially for students taking applied math course. The class should have 10–15 students maximum and placed in the timetable after the math course. It can be 3-4 hour a week, and should be lesson-driven. Teachers need to collaborate together to make sure that the content is parallel with the regular class lessons and the concepts taught reinforce those taught in class.
d) Full-Year Math Course for Students Struggling in Math
The Huron Heights EQAO report shows that students taking math courses on a semester base;, however, the school should communicate with students, their parent and their feeder schools to identify the struggling students who are achieving below provincial standard in mathematics and timetable them for a yearly based combined science and math linear course, especially for applied subjects. This course should be taught by one teacher for both subjects and it will help student learn and teachers can provide more help on a continuous track.
e) Collaboration with Feeder Schools
Working with feeder schools before their students enter Huron Heights SS is important. The school not only focuses on creating a positive transition for the students socially but also works with the feeder schools to address gaps in learning as evidenced through feeder school’s EQAO data. Staff from both Huron Heights SS and the feeder schools gather knowledge of the students and respective curriculums and formulate plans to ensure students enter Huron Heights with gaps clearly identified and addressed. Grade 9 and Grades 6-8 teachers can cooperate together to analyze student gaps and help students to improve.
f) Parent Communication and Collaboration
Communication with parents is necessary, and many opportunities are provided for parents to become involved in their children’s learning experiences. Parent math nights can be organized to inform parents about new initiatives, clarify misconceptions about the “new math”, such as linear course and ensure a shared understanding of the importance of reaching the provincial standard. Parents are also provided with the math class web sites and are encouraged to use this as an additional tool to help their children learning and know how well they are doing in school.
g) Teacher Professional Development Support
School administrator need to provide support to the math teachers and let them work collaboratively to provide meaningful learning experiences for all students. A useful approach to selecting math specialist teachers will be resulted in a group of teachers who demonstrate passion and commitment to mathematics and to sharing their expertise with students of all abilities. Teachers should take ownership of their professional development and participate in many initiatives that allow them to reflect on their practice and to determine which improvements will best serve the needs of their students.
As demonstrated in this article, analyzing a school with just one report is like judging a person’s health condition according to the bathroom scale. A systematic approach to collecting and analyzing data is necessary in order to diagnose school weakness. Huron Heights SS administrators should apply a data-driven decision-making process and a shared vision for school improvement for student success.

References:
1． American Association of School Administrators. Using data to improve schools: what’s working (# R215 U99 0019). Retrieved from AASA Website: http://aasa.org/uploadedFiles/Policy_and_Advocacy/files/UsingDataToImproveSchools.pdf
2． EQAO School Report: Huron Heights SS. (2013-2014). Retrieved from EQAO website: https://eqaoweb.eqao.com/eqaoweborgprofile/Download.aspx?rptType=PBS&_Mident=917893&YEAR=2014&assessmentType=9&orgType=S&nF=aGgII~plus~0l3aGiPl0RLjNzVYWEa5fFbP2~fslash~etNrKueTMAM=&displayLanguage=E
3． Huron Heights SS, York Region District School Board. Retrieved from YRDSB Website: http://www.yrdsb.ca/schools/huronheights.ss/Pages/default.aspx
4． Michael Kozlow. (2008). Exploring the Many Layers of EQAO Assessment Data: Peeling the Onion. Retrieved from EQAO Website: http://www.eqao.com/en/Our_Data_in_Action/articles/Pages/exploring-layers-eqao-assessment-data.aspx
5． The Tracking Student Achievement in Relation to the Provincial Standard Junior Division (Grade 6) in 2010-2011 to Grade 9 in 2013-2014, Mathematics: Huron Heights SS. (2013-2014). Retrieved from EQAO website: https://eqaoweb.eqao.com/eqaoweborgprofile/Download.aspx?rptType=Cohort&_Mident=917893&YEAR=2014&assessmentType=9&orgType=S&nF=aGgII~plus~0l3aHtwG9zXPbtbsD2R3jX80VMyi4teIMCNYU=&displayLanguage=E
6． Victoria L. Bernhardt. (2008). Using Data to Improve Student Learning. Retrieved from EQAO website: http://www.eqao.com/en/Our_Data_in_Action/articles/Pages/using-data-improve-student-learning.aspx