The results for the Provincial Achievement Tests (PAT) and the Provincial Diploma Exams (PDE) for the Lakeland Catholic School District (LCSD) are in, and they’re looking good.
Assistant superintendent Pamela Guilbault presented a report to the board of trustees outlining how students in Grade 6, 9, and 12 faired in the 2017/18 PAT and PDE during their regular meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 18.
Over 90 per cent of Grade 6 students in English language arts met the acceptable standards.
“That is something we should celebrate,” Guilbault expressed.
In French language arts, over 90 per cent of students met acceptable levels, while the same percentage of students met the acceptable standards in writing. Over 89 per cent of those taking the test met those standards in reading.
Last year, the board concentrated on improving the French and English language arts for writing, and this year’s test results confirmed they were successful.
“We celebrate 18.1 percent, almost 20 per cent of our Grade 6 level met the standard of excellence, just slightly below the provincial average, but still something that we should be celebrating,” Guilbault said, adding the French/English improved by 2.3 per cent, with students showing a 93.6 per cent success rate.
For Grade 6 math, 90 per cent of French immersion students and 65 per cent of English students met the acceptable standard.
When it comes to English social studies, the results remained steady at 75.5 per cent, with improvement in the French immersion category of 83 per cent above the provincial average.
A change to the math portion of the Grade 6 and Grade 9 PAT affected the results slightly, requiring students to complete two sections of the test, one with and one without the help of a calculator.
Guilbault noted the change would be taken into account this year when preparing students for the next test.
“We’ll be addressing that with our principals. They will be putting together their school improvement plans, and that will be a topic of discussion and how they can address that.”
Prinicipals will review the previous results and determine if there are any correlations between the two outcomes to see what steps can be taken to assist students.
In Grade 9 English language arts, students were on par with the provincial average of 89.5 per cent. The French language arts maintained a 77.8 per cent of students achieving the acceptable standard, while they saw an increase of 3.7 per cent in the standard of excellence.
Grade 9 English science remained similar to last year’s results with a slight increase of about 76 per cent at the acceptable standard. The French immersion science results increased by 13.3 per cent to achieve 30 per cent at the level of excellence. Both Grade 9 groups remained similar to last year’s results, with 53.4 per cent in English and 66.7 per cent in French meeting the acceptable standards. Standard of excellence for French was at roughly seven per cent, while English had 13.6 per cent.
For students graduating from LCSD high schools, the results of the PDE continue to show that students receive the education they need to be successful after they graduate.
“One of the things that we’re continually praising our students and our teachers for is by the time they exit the Lakeland Catholic School District system, our students have a well-rounded education that affords them opportunities to be competitive in all areas of either post-secondary, college, technical schools, and in the work force, on a variety of different levels. We offer them quality education that enables them to be innovative and resilient citizens of Alberta, Canada society,” Guilbault detailed.
All Grade 12 students tested met the acceptable standards in English 30-2, French language arts 30-1, social studies 30-1 and 30-2, French social studies 30-1 and 30-2, biology 30, science 30, and math 30-2.
