The Northern Lights Public Schools (NLPS) board of trustees saw some improvements to this year’s Accountability Pillar results.
Associate superintendent Bill Driedger presented the report to the board of trustees during their regular meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 31.
As some of the data takes time to collect, Driedger noted that a few of the categories date back to a few years ago.
“The drop out rate, high school completion rates, and transition rates are all more than a year old at this point. They don’t reflect last year, but the years prior to that,” he explained.
The results show a slight decline in the safe and caring category with a score of 86.7 percent of parents, teachers and students in Grade 4, 7, and 10, compared to the 88 per cent in previous years. Since October 2013, they’ve scored well in this category and have seen an 2.5 per cent increase overall.
In student learning opportunities, they received high achievements with program of studies. This was at 78.3 per cent, while education quality sits at 88.4 percent. NLPS received an intermediate in high school completion rate with 71 per cent. Driedger saw this result as an improvement over the past five years.
“Back in 2013, we were at 60.6 per cent. Now, we’re at 74 per cent. Again, that’s a year old, so we don’t know yet what it was last year. Every year, there’s ups and downs, but that’s a pretty significant improvement that has happened,” he detailed.
The district’s drop out rate is considered high at 3.8 per cent, compared to the provincial average of 2.3 per cent. However, their rate has dropped from the October 2013 result of 5.7.
NLPS scored high in the acceptable categories for Provincial Achievement Tests (PAT) with 70 per cent and Provincial Diploma Exams (PDE) at 81.3 per cent, though the excellence results for the PAT came in at 14.7 per cent, while PDE were 16.3 per cent.
“Our excellence has room to continue to grow, but in both of those, they certainly grew over the last year, and have grown over time. We still have a ways to go, but we have some clear indication that there’s some movement in the right direction,” expressed Driedger.
In preparation for lifelong learning, and world of work and citizenship, the district scored good overall. With the exception of the transition rate’s 47.9 per cent, work preparation came in at 78.7 per cent and citizenship scored 78.9 per cent.
Parental involvement for the district was maintained with 80.7 percent, just slightly below the province’s average of 81.2 per cent. This item was considered a high achievement for the district.
School improvement declined from 83.4 percent in previous years to 79.9 percent, although it was only slightly below Alberta’s current result of 80.3.
Board chair Arlene Hrynyk said the board would be mindful of the results moving forward.
