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"6ug08 's Newspaper VF Ode TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2001 BIA making] Scugog remembers plans for a very merry Christmas Volume 135 Number 48 COPY 75¢ 0c + sc asm 28 Pages Grade 3,6 tests incomplete Test results may not be accurate By Rik Davie By Chris Hall Port Perry Star Port Perry Star Testing results for Grade 3 and 6 stu- Port Perry's Business dents may not be worth the paper they are Improvement Area has some ambitious plans for this Christmas shopping season. During a meeting of the town- ship's economic development committee last week, Mr. Bennett, who represents the BIA, informed members of his organization's plans for the holiday season. Following up a successful effort last year which saw. about one- third of the stores in downtown" Port Perry decorated in white | Christmas lights, Mr. Bennett said the BIA is currently in talks with Scugog Hydro representative Terry Adderley regarding lighting up the entire BIA area. 'He also said that the Business Improvement Area has placed ads for December in a local tourist magazine and has made arrange- ments for radio ads which will run the four weeks leading up to Christmas and the two weeks fol- lowing it. "We're doing some aggressive promotion this season," said Mr. Bennett. As well, Mr. Bennett noted that the BIA will be holding a ceremony on Nov. 30 to mark the lighting of the town, beginning at 6 p.m. "It's a Friday night and we want it to have sort of a party atmos- phere and get people downtown and spending money and having fun," said Mr. Bennett, adding that the BIA will make a request to Scugog Council to have a section of Queen St. shut down for the written on, say school board officials. In following up a report received by The Star it was revealed that test results from the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) that were released last week | may be incomplete and thus render the | results void. | The results to date showed overall gains in the areas of reading, writing and math for Grade 6 students and little gain in all areas for Grade 3s. According to Durham District School . . Board Director of Education Grant Yeo the numbers could be better... or worse. "The test results we have back are not complete," Mr. Yeo said. "Yes, it has been our experience in the past that the data they (EQAO) send is not complete, but we get total figures so we have no way of knowing how complete or incomplete they might be." Mr. Yeo said that he has always publi- cally stated in the past that the initial fig- ures released can be ntisleading. "Some (newspapers) released the fig- ures and however much those figures might change as more data comes in, the public has seen the initial figures and reacted to them." Sources at the school board say that in some schools over half of the results from Grade 6 tests are missing and The Star has unconfirmed reports that state one school in the separate system had only six of over 70 tests returned. Dave Midwood, a statistical analyist for the DDSB, told The Star that during the last round of tests about 900 of more than 4,000 test results were incomplete and had to be requested from the EQAO offices. "The (EQAO) have what they refer to as CHRIS HALL/PORT PERRY STAR event. data retrieval issues," Mr. Midwood said. As well, Mr. Bennett told com- Corporal Mack Gibson of the Port Perry Cadet Corp stood alone by the "It is important to realize that board-wide Please turn to Page 10 local cenotaph during the community's Remembrance Day service, which the results are tracked down and they was held Sunday morning at the Port Perry Legion. Please turn to Page 10 Digital Cable TV. ~~ Avauasienow: © .° " Digital Cable TV. 50 clear, so real, * - Digital Picture With crystal dear picture, (D quality sound, and an expanding lineup of er tertainment, Dolby Digital™ Home Sports, music and movies, it's no wonder TV lovers are swarming to digital television Theatre Sound Package ~~ ¢™VIC®S. More channels of entertainment Uninterrupted digital music channels Digital cableis easy. Plug a digital termi. al into your current cable connection and you're Compton » Sa. a Communications a» | CABLE TV « DATA « INTERNET i on. No satellite dishes. No rewiring. No weather interference. No trouble. Nothing but 905-985-8171 | / On-screen programming guide unlimited entertainment for everyone in the family WORRY FREE T.V. and we're not stopping there! it's unreal. Interactive Pay Per View (all 905-985-8171to find out more about the best of whet c: ble has to offer