Student achievement and staff levels were a few of the topics discussed at the South East Cornerstone School Division's regular monthly meeting in January.
Nearly 80 percent of South East Cornerstone School Division (SECSD) students, or 529 individuals, who entered Grade 10 three years ago, went on to graduate with their high school diploma in 2010. It is expected many of those who did not graduate then will go on to graduate in subsequent years. That was one of many statistics presented to the Board by assessment co-ordinator Warren Betker, as he spoke about overall student achievement numbers related to the division's System Goal No. 2 - "Our students achieve at high levels."
From 1995 to 2005, approximately 12 percent of SECSD students did not graduate high school, compared to 18 percent of students across the province who did not attain their diplomas. Betker explained this means SECSD's graduation rate is substantially better than the average provincial graduation rate.
SECSD students achieved at slightly higher academic levels than other students in the province in some areas, based on four sources of data, including the 2010 Core Indicators Report, the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the 2010 Assessment for Learning (AFL) writing assessment and the 2010 Subpopulation Report.
An overview of the division's human capital was presented during the meeting.
There are nearly 600 teachers currently working in SECSD during the 2010-11 school year, according to data presented by Superintendent of Human Resource Services Gord Husband. There are 546.5 full-time equivalent (FTE) education staff (or 579 actual people) working this school year, including 443.3 FTE classroom teachers. Assisting those education staff were a total of 243.56 FTE support staff, including 183.13 FTE education assistants.
SECSD has a mix of experienced and new teachers among the ranks, with 41 percent of teachers having less than nine years experience and 45 percent having between 10 and 25 years of experience. Only 14 percent have more than 26 years of experience.
Knowing this information is crucial for succession planning, as it helps those in the HR Department know who they will have to recruit when teachers begin to retire soon, particularly if it is for a specialized area. Key areas of recruitment will include Practical and Applied Arts, school-based administration, band and small rural schools.
For the Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR), guidelines for the 2010-11 school year have been set at 14.74 based on project numbers. That same number is being requested for next year as well. This is a "healthy number" to work with and has been managed quite well so far, according to Husband.
