OSS Requirements For Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD)

In order to earn an OSSD a student must:

CREDIT REQUIREMENTS
Compulsory Credits (18)

Plus

Elective Credits (12)
In addition to the 18 compulsory credits, students must earn 12 elective credits selected from the courses listed as available in the school course calendar.

Note: All students are required to take Religious Education courses in grades 9 through 12 as part of their commitment to Catholic Education.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

Students must complete 40 hours of community involvement activities, beginning in September of grade 9, in order to be granted their Ontario Secondary School Diploma. This community involvement is to be completed outside of class hours at any time during their years in secondary school. The community involvement activity will encourage students to develop awareness and understanding of civic responsibility and contribute to students’ personal development. A Community Involvement Brochure is available from Guidance, and on the Guidance Website, to assist students and parents/guardians. Documentation will be collected as completed and updated on the final report card each semester.


GRADUATION LITERACY REQUIREMENT

All students are required to meet the literacy graduation requirement in accordance with Ministry of Education policy. Most students will meet the requirement by successfully completing the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) or the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course (OSSLC). Some students may be allowed to meet the requirement by successfully completing a special adjudication process.

The Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT)

The OSSLT is based on the expectations for reading and writing throughout the Ontario curriculum up to and including Grade 9. Its purpose is to determine whether students have the skills in reading and writing that they will need to succeed at school, at work, and in daily life. Students who are working towards their diploma will normally take the OSSLT when they are in Grade 10. Those who do not take the test in the year following the year in which they enter Grade 9 will require a deferral. Once students have successfully completed the literacy test, they may not retake it. Students working towards a certificate are not required to successfully complete the OSSLT. A student will take the OSSLT in the language of instruction of the school in which he or she is enrolled at the time of test administration.

The Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course (OSSLC)

This course is designed to help students acquire and demonstrate the cross-curricular literacy skills that are evaluated by the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT). To be eligible for the course, a student must have written and failed the OSSLT at least once. Students who complete the course successfully will meet the provincial literacy requirement for graduation. Students will read a variety of informational, narrative, and graphic texts and will produce a variety of forms of writing, including summaries, information paragraphs, opinion pieces, and news reports. Students will also maintain and manage a literacy portfolio containing a record of their reading experiences and samples of their writing. Policy requirements for taking the OSSLC are contained in the curriculum policy document The Ontario Curriculum: English, The Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course (OSSLC), Grade 12, 2003.

The Adjudication Process

In June 2004, the ministry introduced an adjudication process. School boards may now establish adjudication panels at the end of the school year to provide certain students with an additional opportunity to meet the literacy graduation requirement. These students include those who would otherwise be eligible to graduate in June but, through no fault of their own, have not been able to take advantage of the normal opportunities to write the OSSLT and/or have not been able to enrol in, or complete, the OSSLC, owing to unforeseen circumstances. Also eligible for the adjudication process are students who were receiving special education programs or services, and who had an IEP documenting required accommodations, but, owing to unforeseen circumstances, did not have access to these accommodations when they were taking the OSSLT. Please contact your guidance counsellor to determine if you are eligible for the Adjudication Process.

The Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) of the Ministry of Education is the testing agent responsible for administering the test. Parents and students can download test material and get pointers at:  EQAO