Northern Lights Public Schools (NLPS) are proud of their Annual Education Results Report (AERR) and Accountability Pillar results, and are looking forward to mapping out the division’s next three years.
“Overall, we’re pretty happy that we’ve seen general increases over the past three years in virtually all of our areas,” expressed Rick Cusson, NLPS superintendent. “I know we’ve seen good improvement in our high school completion rates, as well as our Provincial Diploma Exam (PDE) and Provincial Achievement Test (PAT) results. That really comes back to a lot of the strategies that we’re working on as a division to enhance student success.”
When it comes to their Accountability Pillar results, NLPS saw a jump in their high school completion rate to 71 per cent, however they still remain below the provincial average of 78 per cent.
According to NLPS communications officer Nicole Garner, their school division likes to look at a five-year timeframe, compared to the report’s three years.
“Some things we were really looking at this year when we were looking at the Accountability Pillars and as we’re developing the AERR and three-year education plan, is actually not necessarily how we’ve done compared to last year. You find that if you look from year-to-year sometimes you go up a little, sometimes you go down a little… What tends to tell a better story is how you’re doing over a number of years,” explained Garner.
That means their completion rate went from 60.6 per cent in 2012/13 to 71 per cent this past year.
“We’re definitely making gains there,” Garner stressed.
She added, “At the same time, our drop out rate has improved from 5.7 per cent to 3.8 per cent. That’s the one category that you want to see lower.”
Their schools rated high in the safe and caring category at 86.7 per cent, but saw a dip from the previous three-years 88 per cent.
NLPS maintained their success in their student learning opportunities categories. When it comes to education quality, they saw a slight decrease. Three years ago, the division received 88.8 per cent, but dropped to 88.4 per cent this year. The provincial average in this area is 90 per cent.
There was an increase in their PAT acceptable results category, with a total 70 per cent. This is on-par with last year’s results, and slightly up from three years ago.
Just shy of 15 per cent of students from kindergarten to Grade 9 received excellent results on their PATs. At 14.7 per cent, the area is below the province’s 19.9 per cent average.
Other categories the division scored well in are the Grades 10 to 12 diploma exams.
“We’re really pleased with our math PDE results in the last year. We’re above the provincial average in math 30-2 and also English 30-1. That’s been an improvement,” Garner detailed.
About 81 per cent of students scored acceptable on the PDEs, while 16.3 per cent reached the level of excellence.
In terms of their six-year transition rate category, NLPS scored 47.9 per cent, while decreasing slightly to 78.7 per cent in work preparation, and 78.9 for citizenship.
The school division is on-par with the province in terms of parental involvement with 80.7 per cent.
An area where they saw a decrease in success was their continues school improvement, which went from 82.5 per cent three years ago to 79.9 per cent this year, and is close to the provincial average of 80.3 per cent.
“There is always room for improvements, but obviously when you’re achieving at a fairly high level it’s really about how you keep these results as great as they are and tweak some things so that we can make them even better,” Garner noted, adding when they compare this year’s to their 2012/13 results, they can see noticeable improvements in 13 of the 16 categories.
The province also looks at First Nation, Métis, and Indigenous (FNMI) students, an area Garner believes can be improved in all schools.
“This is an issue for the province as a whole, and that’s one of the reasons why it’s a goal in the AERR set for us by the province and for all school divisions in Alberta. It’s to try to narrow that gap between achievement for FNMI students and students overall,” she expressed. “It’s not a new thing, it’s been going on for a long time, and that’s why it is a goal.”
When it comes to these areas, NLPS is scoring intermediate in their drop out rate with 4.7 per cent. That’s just shy of the province’s 4.8 per cent.
The division’s high school completion rate is low at 57.8 per cent, but is higher than the provincial average of 53.3 per cent.
NLPS scored very low on the PAT acceptable (53.2 per cent) and excellence (4.5) categories, as well as the PDE excellence (8.1) and participation rate (23.4).
Around 76.9 per cent of students who took part in the PDEs scored acceptable.
For FNMI students, the transition rate is around 31 per cent, less than two per cent of the provincial average.
“It’s an area where we aren’t far from where the province is,” said Garner. “Obviously we would like those numbers to be higher.”
In fact, NLPS has been working on a few strategies in order to improve in these areas.
“One of the things that we’ve really been working hard on, especially over the last couple of years, is those key community partnerships with our First Nations and Métis Settlements,” Garner explained, adding by collaborating with them, they’re able to address some of these outcomes for students.
The Accountability Pillar results and AERR help NLPS lay the foundation for their three-year plan.
Garner said NLPS sets goals of their own, on top of the province’s mandated five.
“They set five different goals for us, which are included in the (AERR). A lot of these measures come from our accountability pillars, which is a combination of survey results from parents along with PAT and PDE results, and things such as transition rate, graduation rate, and some other measures like that,” she noted.
Using that information, the division lays out the framework for their three-year education plan.
That includes strategies such as their previous idea of consultants.
“They’re staff that we’ve pulled out of duty in regards to specific classroom teaching duties. They have skills around numeracy, literacy, technology, English language learning, and those types of concepts,” explained Jimmie Lou Irvine, associate superintendent of teaching and learning. “They go and work with our classroom teaching staff who are in front of kids.”
They believe this is one of the reasons why they have seen such an increase in their PAT and PDE results over the years.
“They had been focusing more on elementary school, but now they’re getting into the upper middle school and high school, working with teachers in their classrooms on strategies they can use to address literacy, numeracy, different ways to teach students, and different ways to do assessment,” Garner stated.
Planning ahead, they will be reaching out to staff, students, and parents for their input on ways the division can build on their students’ success.
“We will be doing an extensive stakeholder consultation process again this year, because it’s time to do a new three-year plan,” said Garner.
“We will be talking to parents, students, staff, and community members about what our improvement priorities for the next three years should be. I expect a lot of that discussion will be where are the areas where we need to improve, because obviously we have those five goals that are set for us by Alberta Education, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other areas specific to NLPS that we don’t need to be looking at that might not be covered by those outcomes or are just more defined.”
For Cusson, the division will focus on getting “a little more consistent with some of our academic results,” while also keeping their students’ mental health in mind.
“We know that in our region as a whole, (there are) more of our kids that are experiencing stress, anxiety, and depression than not only national norms, but than the rest of the Province of Alberta. For us, it’s really about strategies that we want to take a look at and are hopefully endorsed in the strategic planning process that we’re going to go through in February in March, to take a look at how we can ensure our teachers can help be a significant adult for our kids, how can they help them deal with some of those levels of stress and anxiety, and how can we get the right supports in place in more of a targeted approach to help kids that have significant issues with stress, anxiety, and depression to help them become not just successful in school, but successful in life.”
