The Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test ( OSSLT ; French : test provincial de compétences linguistiques or TPCL) is a compulsory standardized test for secondary school students in Ontario who wish to obtain the Ontario Secondary School Diploma . For students who entered Grade 9 in 1999–2000, successful completion of the test was not a graduation requirement. However, for those students who took the field test of the OSSLT in 2000–2001, failed the test, and chose to retake the OSSLT in October 2001, successful completion of the provincial literacy graduation requirement became a diploma requirement. It is administered by the Education Quality and Accountability Office ( EQAO ).
24-467: The OSSLT is written every year in either October-December or March-May. Before 2021, the OSSLT was previously written in either March or April. The first booklet includes multiple-choice and short answer questions, as well as a question asking the student to compose a newspaper article based on the headline and picture provided. The second booklet also includes multiple-choice and short answer questions, as well as
48-405: A bespoke / customized house or mansion for their family. Poor urban people lived in shantytowns or in tenements built for rental. Single-family houses were seldom built on speculation , that is for future sale to residents not yet identified. When cities and the middle class expanded greatly and mortgage loans became commonplace, a method that had been rare became commonplace to serve
72-408: A downtown or city centre area. Sociologists sometimes turn the euphemism into a formal designation by applying the term inner city to such residential areas , rather than to more geographically central commercial districts , often referred to by terms like downtown or city centre . The term inner city first achieved consistent usage through the writings of white liberal Protestants in
96-417: A day. Many techniques which had made the automobile affordable made housing affordable: standardization of design and small, repetitive assembly tasks, advertising, and a smooth flow of capital. Mass production resulted in a similar uniformity of product, and a more comfortable lifestyle than cramped apartments in the cities. With the advent of government-backed mortgages, it could actually be cheaper to own
120-499: A house in a new residential development than to rent. As with other products, continual refinements appeared. Curving streets, greenbelt parks, neighborhood pools, and community entry monumentation appeared. Diverse floor plans with differing room counts, and multiple elevations (different exterior "looks" for the same plan) appeared. Developers remained competitive with each other on everything, including location, community amenities, kitchen appliance packages, and price. Today,
144-425: A main idea, provide supporting details, organize and link ideas and information, use a tone for the particular type of writing and use correct spelling and grammar. Examples of pieces requested in the OSSLT include summaries, opinion pieces, news reports and information paragraphs. Marks may be deducted due to a lack of detail. However, the inclusion of too much information can also result in penalties. Preparation for
168-432: A question asking the student to write an opinion piece on a given topic (series of paragraphs). The test is out of 400 marks. Students are asked to read a variety of selections and answer questions about each of them. The questions asked are designed to measure students' understanding of ideas and information that are directly or indirectly stated in the text. Students are also expected to make personal connections related to
192-547: A smaller FAR ( floor area ratio ) than business, commercial or industrial/manufacturing zoning. The area may be large or small. In certain residential areas, especially rural , large tracts of land may have no services whatever, such that residents seeking services must use a motor vehicle or other transportation, so the need for transportation has resulted in land development following existing or planned transport infrastructure such as rail and road. Development patterns may be regulated by restrictive covenants contained in
216-737: A typical residential development in the United States might include traffic calming features such as a slowly winding street , dead-end road , or looped road lined with homes. Suburban developments help form the stereotypical image of a "suburban America" and are generally associated with the American middle-class . Most offer homes in a narrow range of age, price, size and features, thus potential residents having different needs, wishes or resources must look elsewhere. Some residential developments are gated communities or residential communities . Criticisms of residential developments may include
240-453: Is real estate development for residential purposes. Some such developments are called a subdivision , when the land is divided into lots with houses constructed on each lot. Such developments became common during the late nineteenth century, particularly in the form of streetcar suburbs . In previous centuries, residential development was mainly of two kinds. Rich people bought a townlot, hired an architect and/or contractor, and built
264-506: The United States ) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal is the clearing out of blighted areas in inner cities to create opportunities for higher class housing, businesses, and more. In Canada, in the 1970s, the government introduced Neighbourhood Improvement Programs to deal with urban decay, especially in inner cities. Also, some inner-city areas in various places have undergone
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#1732851692631288-430: The deeds to the properties in the development and may also result from or be reinforced by zoning . Restrictive covenants are not easily changed when the agreement of all property owners (many of whom may not live in the area) is required. The area so restricted may be large or small. Residential areas may be subcategorized in the concentric zone model and other schemes of urban geography . Residential development
312-626: The OSSLT. Adjudication panels may be established at the end of the school year by school boards to provide certain students with an additional opportunity to meet the Ontario literacy requirement. Those who qualify for adjudication include students who were unable to write the OSSLT and/or enroll in or complete the OSSLC due to unforeseen circumstances, as well as students who have an IEP documenting required accommodations but, because of unforeseen circumstances, did not have access to these accommodations when taking
336-425: The OSSLT. The failed implementation of an online form of the OSSLT by Kathleen Wynne 's Liberal government was criticized by NDP MPP Lisa Gretzky on October 25, 2016. Inner city The term inner city (also called the hood ) has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in
360-404: The U.S. after World War II , contrasting with the growing affluent suburbs . According to urban historian Bench Ansfield, the term signified both a bounded geographic construct and a set of cultural pathologies inscribed onto urban black communities. Inner city thus originated as a term of containment. Its genesis was the product of an era when a largely white suburban mainline Protestantism
384-409: The course, students will have to read a variety of texts (e.g. narrative text) and produce different types of writing (e.g. news reports). Accommodations can be made for students with an IEP (Individual Education Plan) so as to strengthen those students' language skills. The OCLC can serve as one of at least four first language credits necessary for graduating high school, as well as a replacement for
408-775: The expanding demand for home ownership. Post–World War II economic expansion in major cities of the United States, especially New York City and Los Angeles produced a demand for thousands of new homes, which was largely met by speculative building. Its large-scale practitioners disliked the term "property speculator" and coined the new name "residential development" for their activity. Entire farms and ranches were subdivided and developed, often with one individual or company controlling all aspects of entitlement (permits), land development (streets and grading), infrastructure (utilities and sewage disposal), and housing. Communities like Levittown, Long Island or Lakewood south of Los Angeles saw new homes sold at unprecedented rates—more than one
432-522: The following year or take the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course (OLC 4O) in grade 12 to meet the literacy requirement. The Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course (OSSLC, Course Code: OLC3O/OLC4O) is a Grade 11 or 12 open course that can be taken by those who had written the OSSLT more than once. It is designed to assist students in acquiring the basic literacy skills required for getting an Ontario high school diploma. In
456-404: The local secondary school was never informed of the OSSLT's existence and thus was never prepared for the tests. This problem is mostly limited to underperforming schools mostly in inner city areas. Before the OSSLT is written, teachers are expected to assist students in preparation for the test. Upon completion of the test, booklets are shipped for marking. Those who fail must attempt the test
480-401: The reading selections. The selections used in the OSSLT consist of common reading materials, including information materials (e.g. instructions, newspaper articles), graphic materials (e.g. graphs, diagrams, legends) and literary materials (e.g. stories). Students have to produce four pieces of writing for the OSSLT. The writing component is designed to measure the student's ability to develop
504-486: The role of the church in the nationwide project of urban renewal. Thus, even as it arose in contexts aiming to entice mainline Protestantism back into the cities it had fled, the term accrued its meaning by generating symbolic and geographic distance between white liberal churches and the black communities they sought to help. Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in
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#1732851692631528-615: The socioeconomic process of gentrification , especially since the 1990s. Residential area A residential area is a land used in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas . Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single-family housing , multi-family residential , or mobile homes . Zoning for residential use may permit some services or work opportunities or may totally exclude business and industry. It may permit high density land use or only permit low density uses. Residential zoning usually includes
552-482: The test ranges from "Literacy Monday" activities in Grade 10 classes every Monday from the start of the school year. Some schools offer part-time after-school practice courses to entire semester-long courses that occupy a whole "period" each school day (OSSLC), although this is only targeted at struggling students or students who have failed in the past. Reports have circulated by disgruntled parents that their teen who attends
576-436: Was negotiating its relationship to American cities. Liberal Protestants’ missionary brand of urban renewal refocused attention away from the blight and structural obsolescence thought to be responsible for urban decay, and instead brought into focus the cultural pathologies they mapped onto black neighborhoods. The term inner city arose in this racial liberal context, providing a rhetorical and ideological tool for articulating
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