NORTHEAST — There’s work that needs to be done to improve the writing of North East School Division students.
At its Nov. 27 meeting, the division went over a variety of data from the school system looking at graduation rates, reading levels and credit attainment. The data showed that while the division needs to improve on writing levels, it is above the provincial average when it comes to credit attainment and graduation rates. Reading levels are below the provincial average.
“We’ve been pretty successful when we identified an area to focus on that we’ve been able to see grow over time. That’s one of the strengths of the Education Sector Strategic Plan,” said Don Rempel, the division's director of education. “Writing was the first time we collected data from our teachers and our results are quite a bit lower than we like, but given the results with the reading data we’re hoping that can improve pretty quickly over the short term.”
For Grade 4, 62.1 per cent of non-First Nation, Métis and Indigenous (non-FNMI) students had a writing level at or above grade level, while 27.3 per cent of First Nation, Métis and Indigenous (FNMI) students had a writing level at or above grade level. For Grade 7, 59.7 per cent non-FNMI students had a writing level at or above grade level, while 35.7 per cent of FNMI students had a writing level at or above grade level. For Grade 9, 64.6 per cent of non-FNMI students had a writing level at or above grade level, while 37.5 per cent had a writing level at or above grade level.
This is the first year writing data has been collected. The analysis of the division's report reads, “it is the expectation of the North East School Division that the percentage of students at or above grade level will improve in coming years. Numerous local initiatives have already been put into action to address these results”.
The reading results for 2017 to 2018 for Grade 3 students reading at or above grade level were 75.3 per cent for non-FNMI students. For FNMI students it was 63 per cent. Overall, the Grade 3 students the sample was taken from had 73.4 per cent reading at or above grade level. This is a fall of 0.2 per cent from the previous year.
In a report by the division, they recognized it was below the overall provincial target of 75 per cent, but stated if they include students who are only one reading level behind those results reach the provincial 2020 goal of 80 per cent by having an overall 81.1 per cent. As for the gap between FNMI and non-FNMI students the analysis in the report reads, “the gap is continuingly closing, but not enough to consider it a celebration”.
From 2016 to 2017, non-FNMI students had a rate of 77 per cent for attaining eight or more credits per year for Grades 10 to 12. In 2017 to 2018 that rate went down to 73 per cent. For FNMI students it was 47 per cent in 2016 to 2017, and remained the same in 2017 to 2018. All results were above the provincial average for 2016 to 2018.
From 2016 to 2017, the on-time graduation rate for non-FMNI students was 92 per cent. In 2017 to 2018 that rate went down one per cent to 91 per cent. For FNMI students it was 73 per cent in 2016 to 2017 and went down in 2017 to 2018 to 68 per cent. All results were above the provincial average for 2016 to 2018. All results were above the provincial average for 2016 to 2018.
The average final marks for selected secondary-level courses for 2017 to 2018 were displayed. All results take into account the French and English equivalent. English Language Arts A 10 had an 80.6 per cent average for non-FNMI students, FNMI students had a 77.6 per cent average. English Language Arts B 10 had an 81.6 per cent average for non-FNMI students; FNMI students had a 77 per cent average. Science 10 had a 79.6 per cent average for non-FNMI students; FNMI students had a 66.1 per cent average. Math: Workplace and Apprenticeship 10 had an 82 per cent average for non-FNMI students; FNMI students had a 71.3 per cent average. Math: Foundations and Pre-calculus 10 had a 79.2 per cent average for non-FNMI students; FNMI students had a 74.7 per cent average. English Language Arts 20 had an 81.7 per cent average for non-FNMI students; FNMI students had a 74.5 per cent average. Math: Workplace and Apprenticeship 20 had a 73.2 per cent average for non-FNMI students; FNMI students had a 66.9 per cent average. Math: Foundations 20 had a 80.4 per cent average for non-FNMI students, while FNMI students had a 73.2 per cent average.
To close the gap between the non-FNMI students and FNMI students the division is starting program called Following Their Voices.
“A big thing starting in the fall of this year will be the Following Their Voices program in Nipawin, that’s our Nipawin LP Miller Comprehensive School where we have our largest group of First Nations and Métis students,” Rempel said. “It’s a three year program to support teachers and better supporting students and we’ve had early reports of it being quite successful.”
Following Their Voices focuses on enhancing relationships between students and teachers, creating structures and supports for teachers and school administrators to co-construct teaching and learning interactions with students and creating safe, well-managed learning environments.
“The idea there is to change classrooms to be more successful and then that spreads to have a whole school there be successful and once we have better success in the school we try to spread that across the school division.”
