Grade 6 and 9 Rocky View Schools (RVS) students have recently fallen behind the provincial average on standardized testing, according to a report brought forward at the public school division's board of trustees meeting on Dec. 15.
Associate Superintendent of Learning Lori Meyer informed the RVS trustees about this year’s test results during her Annual Education Results report on Thursday morning.
“This is one of the areas that may not have made it into Grandma’s brag book,” said Meyer candidly. “But it is the reality we have within our area here.”
Meyer told trustees this year saw the first Provincial Achievement Test (PAT) exams administered to students in Grade 6 and 9 since 2020. On average, RVS students scored below the provincial average in all subject areas, with big gaps in language arts reading and math, particularly.
According to the Annual Education Report, RVS Grade 6 students scored an average of 65.8 per cent in reading on the PAT exams. The provincial average was 81.1 per cent.
In math, the RVS Grade 6 average was 68.3 per cent, whereas the provincial average was 75 per cent.
The splits on the PAT were even more noticeable at the Grade 9 level. According to the Annual Education Report, RVS Grade 9 students scored 67.5 in reading. The provincial average was 79.4. And in math, RVS students scored an average of 54.4 compared to a provincial average of 63.7.
“In all subject areas, we have dropped 10 per cent overall,” confirmed Meyer. “Our participation rates are about the same as the province. So it’s not like we are not participating.”
Meyer said the PAT results were embargoed until just recently, and she had just started the process of reviewing the results with local school principals, and formulating some initial lines of inquiry into how to address these results going forward.
In terms of diploma exams, Meyer said students in RVS appear to be on par with the provincial average and fall within the “acceptable” category in comparison to other school districts. However, Meyer admitted RVS was behind the provincial average when it comes to students achieving “excellence” in their education.
“Again, that is something we can dig into a little more,” said Meyer, “and have a look at. It’s about a 10 per cent drop overall from 2018 to 2022, again with a couple of years there when they were not written.”
Meyer speculated the lacklustre diploma results might have been driven by the fact that RVS's Grade 12 students in 2022 were heavily impacted by COVID-19 disruptions to their education in their foundational Grade 10 year.
But, she admitted, this was just speculation on her part, and she would have to investigate the premise more fully by doing some further comparative number crunching to see if there was indeed a correlation.
“There are lots of questions to ask here,” she confirmed. “Lots of speculation we can do about why they are like that. The important part is we don’t ignore it, and we do have those conversations at the school level about what these results mean, and what we have to do in order to have positive impact going forward.”
