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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
More Yellowknife students are testing at or above their grade level than their counterparts in the rest of the territory, but fewer of our students achieved the acceptable standard compared to the Alberta average, according to Alberta standardized test results released Feb. 28.

While a high proportion of students who wrote the standardized tests achieved the "acceptable standard" - more than 50 per cent in most cases - they consistently ranked below the average scores reported by the Government of Alberta on the Alberta Student Achievement Tests for the 2010-11 school year. NWT students follow the Alberta education curriculum.

Students seemed to struggle with the Grade 9 math test, with just 53 per cent of tested Yellowknife students achieving the "acceptable standard."

These standardized tests are administered to Grade 3, 6 and 9 students each year, in an effort to peg how students are doing in the classroom, and highlight areas of success and areas that need improvement.

"We've got to be careful when it comes to small (population) numbers because it's too easy to identify individual students or individual teachers, and that was never our intention," said Dan Daniels, deputy minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

"Our intention is really to monitor how, as a system, we are doing overall and to identify where we need to make some improvements."

Attendance is an area the territorial government would like to see some improvement.

"When you compare (the results) to the attendance patterns, there is a correlation between our results and attendance," said Daniels.

Average attendance in 2011 dropped to 84.3 per cent, down from 86.1 per cent in 2010, despite a new government program launched in 2011 through the Aboriginal Student Achievement initiative that aims to reward students who attend their classes.

"That is a concern for us, of course. We definitely want to see our attendance improve," said Daniels.

"It's a real challenge to provide an education program to a student who is not attending on a regular basis, and if those students are missing school during the early years and that carries on, it makes it harder and harder for them to keep up with their peers."

The proportion of students who write the Alberta achievement tests is much lower in the territory than the average in the province of Alberta. For example, 20.1 per cent of Yellowknife students who were eligible to write the Grade 6 English test were exempt, where the provincial average was 4.6 per cent.

For Grade 9, an average of five per cent of Alberta students who wrote the English language tests in 2010 were exempt from writing; 18.6 per cent of Yellowknife students were given a pass by their superintendents.

In 2007, superintendents were given authority to excuse students from writing the tests if those students were on an Individual Education Plan or if they were working two or more levels below their grade and had a Modified Education Plan, states a background document provided by the GNWT Department of Education, Culture and Employment.

"In the territories here, any student who is two years behind is exempted, and (any student) in special needs programs," said assistant superintendent Bernie Giacobbo of Yellowknife Education District No. 1.

When asked why so many students are at least two years behind in their studies - the most extreme case being Grade 6 math where more than 21 per cent of Yellowknife students were exempt - Giacobbo said there are a number of variables, such as the transient population in Yellowknife schools.

"One thing about education is you play with the card you're dealt," said Giacobbo.

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