Grade 9 Math EQAO
What is EQAO?
EQAO stands for the Education Quality and Accountability Office. It is a Crown agency of the Government of Ontario in Canada formed in 1996 responsible for ensuring the quality and accountability of Mathematics education in the publicly funded school system in Ontario.
Who will write the EQAO assessment and when?
In publicly funded high schools in Ontario, all students who are taking the MTH1W Grade 9 de-streamed mathematics course are required to write EQAO's Grade 9 Assessment of Mathematics, which is a standardized assessment that happens at the end of the MTH1W course. Students will take this assessment in their school using computers that meet the technical requirements of the e-assessment system.
What is the format of the EQAO assessment?
In EQAO's Grade 9 Assessment of Mathematics, there are two sessions (A and B), each having two stages. The first stage of each session consists of 14 multiple-choice questions of medium difficulty, and the second stage of each session consists of 13 more multiple-choice questions. The level of difficulty of the second stage depends on how well the students perform in the first stage. If the students perform well in the first stage, the second stage's questions will be more difficult. On the other hand, if the students do not perform well in the first stage, the second stage's questions will be a bit easier. This adaptive nature of the assessment would help the teachers better assess their student's performance.
How does the grading system work for the EQAO assessment?
The Acting Program Manager - Numeracy of EQAO said in an email to Mr. Ho in June 2023:
"EQAO is a large-scale assessment that provides information to schools and boards for improvement planning. Individual Student Reports (ISRs) will also be provided to teachers and school administrators shortly after students complete the EQAO Grade 9 Assessment of Mathematics. These results may be included as part of a student’s final Grade 9 mathematics course mark as per the Ministry’s direction in the Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation, and Reporting in Ontario’s Schools, Kindergarten to Grade 12 (2010) document. This assessment would be included as part of the final evaluation portion where students have the opportunity to demonstrate their learning across the Grade 9 mathematics curriculum.
A student’s outcome is assigned using a statistical procedure that takes into account the student’s responses to all the operational questions on the assessment and the difficulty of each of these questions, regardless of how the student is routed. This procedure, known as Item Response Theory, assumes a continuum of ability in mathematics knowledge and skills (as reflected by the achievement level 1 to 4), and locates the student’s outcome along that continuum. The Individual Student Report provides this outcome by providing an overall level of achievement for each student and showing where on the continuum the student’s results are located."
How does the EQAO day look at LPCI?
Here are short video clips of the LPCI students writing their Grade 9 Math EQAO:
Grade 9 Math EQAO (Semester 1b -2022-23).movGrade 9 Math EQAO (Semester 2 -2022-23).movTireless Teaching Staff Getting Ready on the Math EQAO Day:
Photo: Mr. Ho (left) and Ms. Hanway-Fleming (right) were having coffee before the Math EQAO assessment started.