DEH CHO - Teachers in schools across the Deh Cho are examining a series of test results and looking for areas where changes can be made.

The results of the 2010 Alberta Achievement Tests and the Functional Grade Levels were released on Jan. 13.

The exams, which students have written for the past six years, are based on the NWT curriculum in the areas of language arts and mathematics. Students in Grades 3, 6, and 9 take the tests.

"It's a really good test of the curriculum itself and how the children understand the information," said Terry Jaffray, the superintendent of the Dehcho Divisional Education Council.

The council is primarily interested in looking at the regional results from the tests to see how groups of students are doing as they progress through the grades as opposed to how the results vary in the same grade from year to year, Jaffray said.

Teachers are required to look at the results and identify any areas of concern and how to address them whether through different teaching methods or by spending more time on a certain topic, she said.

"Everyone wants to support the kids and make sure they're getting the required learning," said Jaffray.

Jaffray couldn't disclose the exact results for the region but said the results showed a modest improvement of approximately two per cent in language arts, particularly at the Grade 3 and 6 level. Grade 9 students' results remained the same.

Jaffray said it's unclear whether the improvements in the Deh Cho are the results of strategies implemented in the last year in the schools or because of the region wide assessments.

For the past three years students in the Deh Cho have been given regional writing assessments so they gain experience writing in situations similar to achievement testing.

The Deh Cho's results in general, however, are still below those of the larger centres in the territory. Across the territory 43 per cent of students in the communities achieved an acceptable standard compared to 85.7 in the regional centres, such as Fort Simpson, and 79.8 in Yellowknife.

In math students in the Deh Cho still have lower results than those in the larger centres but improvements were made at the Grade 6 and 9 levels, said Jaffray.

There are no math results available for the whole territory because of changes to the curriculum made two years ago that are now being reflected in the tests.

The Deh Cho chose to write the math achievement tests based on the previous curriculum so the statistics can still be compared to those of previous years.

As part of the test report attendance levels were also released.

The Deh Cho has, on average, approximately an 85 per cent attendance level. The percentage ranges from close to 80 to more than 90 in different schools in the region.

Territory wide the average attendance was 86 per cent for the 2009-10 school year, the equivalent of a student missing one and a half days of school every two weeks. This average is slightly above the 2008-09 number of 85.5 per cent.

Dan Daniels, the deputy minister of Education, Culture and Employment said work is ongoing through the Aboriginal Students Achievement Program to close the divide between the achievement of students in the larger regional centers and the smaller communities in the territory but that it takes time.

"The results are what they are," he said.

"We definitely want to see improvement and we definitely want to see more students achieving at a higher level and we certainly believe that is possible."

-with files from Katie May

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