Rocky View Schools (RVS) released its annual education report last week and among the highlights were concerns for Grade 9 student performance in comparison to the rest of the province.
The Annual Education Results Report is an accountability measure required by all boards across the province and serves as a snapshot of the prior year’s student performance.
The report shows a trend in the last few years of the Grade 9 students’ marks for both school-awarded grades and diploma marks being significantly lower than the province for both First Nation Metis Inuit (FMNI) and their non-FMNI peers.
The math Provincial Achievement Test (PAT) mark, for example, only 63.5 per cent of RVS non FMINI students received a passing grade compared to the 67.2 percent provincial average. The gap in the math PAT grade for FMNI students compared to FMNI province wide was even more stark at 30 per cent achieving acceptable versus 41.1 percent province-wide.
“I would say our past performance throughout – whether for our Grade 6 PAT or Grade 9 PAT – is concerning for us,” said Greg Luterbach, superintendent, noting that though RVS is lower than the provincial average, the concern is also a provincial trend.
“It’s really something we’re going to need to increase and focus on around how our students are performing around numeracy.”
“Our high schools have started to dig into that to get a sense of what’s going on there – we see our Grade 12s do quite well and yet our Grade 9s are below their provincial peers.”
“How are we dropping and then bouncing back up by the time they get up to Grade 12?”
For now, Luterbach said the school board is looking into potential factors for the trend.
“We know for us that’s often a time our students are transitioning (schools),” he said. “So is that part of the challenge?”
“Those are conversations happening with all our principals back at their school level.”
Overall, the report highlighted many positives within the school board over the last year.
For one, the dropout rate compared to the province is significantly lower than the province and the high school completion rate is significantly higher.
The report also noted an increase in satisfaction around the work RVS is doing around literacy and numeracy.
FMNI student performance overall in the RVS system is much better than their FMNI peers from around the province.
“That’s something we need to be proud of,” he said.
However, a gap still remains between RVS FMNI students and their RVS non-FMNI peers.
“One of the provincial goals is around narrowing the gap or eliminating the gap more importantly,” Luterbach said.
