by Jennifer Pritchett
Northern News Services

NNSL (Feb 12/97) - French immersion students in Yellowknife schools are on par with their Alberta counterparts.

Students in Grade 3, 6 and 9 scored comparably to or higher than Alberta students, according to the Alberta Education Provincial Achievement Tests done last year.

"We do these tests to ensure that the children could transfer into another immersion program," said Lilly Oldham, supervisor of language instruction with the public school district.

The public school board tested Grade 6 and 9 and the Catholic school board tested Grade 3 and 6 in areas of math, English and French language arts.

Denis Milot, French immersion consultant for the Catholic school board, said the results were impressive, particularly because not all the curriculum in NWT schools is the same as what's done in Alberta.

"The students worked well, as this confirmed that our students are on par with or above students in Alberta," he said.

Oldham said the tests are invaluable in showing the weaknesses of the students.

"It provides data on the students -- shows areas of concern so that we can make decisions on how to implement the program the following year," she said.

Oldham said, however, that it takes too long for the results to come back. Testing is done at the need of the year, and the results return in October or November of the next year.

"If it were faster, we could make immediate changes," she said.