TORONTO, Sept. 16, 2015 /CNW/ - The CEO of the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO), Bruce Rodrigues, announced today that Dr. Lisa Walsh will be joining the agency as Chief Assessment Officer (CAO) on September 28, 2015. Dr. Walsh is currently a superintendent of schools with the York Region District School Board. She is a strong advocate for student success and continuous improvement and possesses extensive knowledge in the areas of educational leadership, change management and strategic planning.
EQAO extends its sincere thanks to Debra Rantz for her outstanding guidance and commitment as CAO between 2013 and 2015. Ms. Rantz joined the Limestone District School Board as its Director of Education in July.
QUICK FACTS
- EQAO's CAO leads the implementation of assessment programs and instruments and provides expert advice and recommendations to the CEO on education assessment policy and strategic direction for programs.
- Dr. Lisa Walsh has dedicated her career to student achievement and well-being in all of her roles, including classroom teacher, vice-principal and principal.
- Dr. Walsh has provided system-level leadership as student achievement officer for the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat and has trained the next generation of educational leaders through Principal Qualification courses and through faculty of education and master's-level courses at Nipissing and Niagara universities.
- In 2011, Dr. Walsh was the first administrator in her board to be honoured with a Canada's Outstanding Principals award. She was nominated by staff, students and parents for motivating all in the pursuit of high levels of student achievement and well-being.
QUOTES
"I'm delighted to be joining EQAO at this exciting time of new horizons for large-scale assessment in Ontario. Our students deserve the best education system we can offer them, and for that a continuous assessment of our system's progress is essential."
—Dr. Lisa Walsh, incoming Chief Assessment Officer, EQAO
"Dr. Walsh's depth of knowledge and experience will be a great asset to EQAO and to Ontario's school system as a whole. On behalf of the board of directors and staff of EQAO, I extend a warm welcome to Lisa as she assumes this important role for the agency."
—Bruce Rodrigues, Chief Executive Officer, EQAO
Aussi disponible en français
EQAO is an independent agency that creates and administers large-scale assessments to measure Ontario students' achievement in reading, writing and math at key stages of their education. All EQAO assessments are developed by Ontario educators to align with The Ontario Curriculum. The assessments evaluate student achievement objectively and in relation to a common provincial standard. EQAO is undertaking a multi-year project to move the provincial assessments online.
EQAO provides results to each student who writes an assessment. Its personalized reports help support individual student learning. The agency provides schools and school boards with detailed reports about their students' achievement, as well as contextual, attitudinal and behavioural information from questionnaires, in an interactive online reporting tool. These data are used to improve school programming and classroom instruction. EQAO also reports the results of the provincial assessments publicly. This helps keep the public education system accountable to taxpayers.
EQAO is committed to building capacity for the use of data through articles, workshops, school stories and programs like the Dr. Bette M. Stephenson Recognition of Achievement. EQAO has an active research program that investigates factors that influence student achievement, school effectiveness and best assessment practices.
EQAO coordinates Ontario's participation in national and international assessments.
SOURCE Education Quality and Accountability Office
Angele Dufresne, Communications Officer, 416-314-4327, [email protected]
Share this article