How to Read EQAO Results (and What Level 2 Really Means)

by Rachel Esco November 05, 2026

Level 2 is not a fail. It's a map. Once you know how to read EQAO results, that number stops being a worry and starts pointing to the skill your child needs next.

EQAO released its results for the 2025-26 school year on September 25, 2026, and many families are now opening their child's report for the first time. I'm an OCT-certified English teacher with 14 years (and counting) in education, and I tutor reading and writing online for students in grades 4 to 12. Here's how I read these reports, and what I'd do next if your child landed at Level 2 in reading or writing.

How to read EQAO results: the four levels

In grades 3 and 6, EQAO's provincial assessments test reading, writing and math. Results come in four levels, and the level matters more than anything else on the page:

• Level 4: above the provincial standard.
• Level 3: the provincial standard. This is the target for every student.
• Level 2: approaching the standard. Your child has many of the skills but can't use them every time yet.
• Level 1: well below the standard, with bigger gaps to work on.

Read each subject on its own. Plenty of children sit at Level 3 in reading and Level 2 in writing, and that split tells you where to focus.

How do I get my child's EQAO results?

Your child's school shares the Individual Student Report, on paper or online depending on the board. If you haven't seen it, ask the teacher or the school office. Keep it. It gives you a starting point to compare with report cards and classroom work over the year.

What Level 2 really means

When a grade 4 parent in Thornhill shows me a Level 2 in writing, I ask to see the child's writing before I think about the number. Most of the time the ideas are there, but they aren't organized or developed yet. That's what Level 2 describes, and it's fixable.

An EQAO Level 2 isn't a label your child carries forward. It means your child is partway there. In reading, it often looks like a child who understands what happened in a passage but struggles to explain why, or to back up an answer with details from the text. In writing, it looks like good ideas that wander, paragraphs that run together, or answers that stop before they make their point.

Those are skills, not traits. They can be taught, and they line up with the expectations in the Ontario Language curriculum for grades 1 to 8. Children often move faster than parents expect once someone names the specific gap.

Why writing results often trail reading

If your child's writing level sits below their reading level, they have plenty of company. Across Ontario in 2025-26, 75% of grade 3 students met the provincial standard in reading, but only 67% did in writing. Put another way, about 1 in 4 grade 3 students fell below the reading standard, and even more fell below it in writing.

Writing is harder to measure and harder to teach in a busy classroom, because it needs one-on-one feedback. A child can read a lot alone. Most children can't grow as writers without someone looking at their work up close and showing them what to change.

Looking at your school and board

School and board results give you context, but they don't tell you about your child. York Region EQAO results for 2025-26 show small dips: in the York Region District School Board, grade 6 reading went from 91% to 89% meeting the standard, and grade 3 reading went from 77% to 76%. Those are still strong numbers. A strong board average doesn't mean every child is on track, and a small dip doesn't mean something is wrong at your child's school.

How to find your school's results

EQAO's results page has a school search. Type in a school name, for example Thornhill Woods Public School, and you'll see how its students did in reading and writing. I don't rank schools, and I'd encourage you not to read too much into one year. A school's results describe a group of children. Your child's report describes your child, and that's the one to act on.

What to do with a Level 2

Here's the plan I suggest to parents:

1. Look at real work. Ask the teacher for a recent piece of writing or a reading response. The report tells you there's a gap. The work shows you what it is.
2. Ask one question at the parent-teacher interview. "What's the one reading or writing skill you'd most like my child to work on?" One clear answer beats a long list.
3. Read together and talk about it. After a chapter, ask why a character made a choice, not only what happened. That builds the thinking EQAO looks for.
4. Write little and often. A short paragraph a few times a week, with a clear point and one example, does more than a long assignment once a month.
5. Check in again at report card time. Compare the teacher's comments with what you saw in the EQAO report.

These habits pay off long after grade 6. The same skills show up again on the grade 10 literacy test, and my guide on how to prepare for the OSSLT shows where they lead.

When an English tutor for kids helps

Many children move from Level 2 to Level 3 with steady support from school and from you. Some need more targeted help, especially with writing. An English tutor for kids can study your child's work, find the one skill that's holding them back, and practise it one-on-one until it becomes a habit.

That's the work I do every week with students in grades 4 to 8, in short, focused online lessons with the same certified teacher each time. If your child's report showed a Level 2 and you'd like a clear plan, read about how online English tutoring for kids works. We'll start with your child's own reading and writing, not the number.

Keep reading

• What Happens If You Fail the OSSLT?
• The Learning X-Ray assessment

Want to know where your child's reading and writing stand before the next report card? The Learning X-Ray assessment pinpoints the gap, so every lesson after it has a clear target.

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