Chris Puglia
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 25/02) - Yellowknife students are being pushed to compete with the best in the world -- and they are doing very well.

Yellowknife School District No. 1 (Yellowknife1) is striving to meet the standard set by Alberta in Grade 12 diploma exam testing.

"Using Alberta as a comparison is a respectable goal, we're chasing the best in Canada, and in some cases the world," said Dan Schofield, Yellowknife1 chair.

According to the Programme for International Student Assessment 2000 report, Alberta is ranked third in the world for math and science and first for literacy.

The standing means Yellowknife students have some lofty goals to meet but, Schofield said, the board is working hard to help them.

"These are respectable goals," said Schofield.

To meet those goals, the board has invested in literacy and mathematics initiatives that are helping the division improve.

According to statistics compiled by Yellowknife1, over the past six years students in the division have made steady progress. They are heading toward achieving a goal of 85 per cent of students earning the acceptable level of achievement in all subjects.

In the 2001/2002 school year, Grade 12 students in the division met or exceeded that goal in every subject except one -- chemistry, but it was less than five per cent off the mark.

As well, in five of nine subjects Yellowknife1 out-performed Alberta.

Pure math has been an area that students nationwide have struggled with, but Yellowknife1 students seem to be doing well with 82 per cent of students achieving the acceptable level in 2000/2001 and 90.3 per cent last year.

"The board has taken on some new initiatives to support math and we hope to see these results over a long period of time," said Schofield.

In comparison on the June 2002 diploma exams, 94.4 per cent of Yellowknife1 student met the acceptable level of achievement while only 87.2 per cent of Alberta students did.

However, that result may be a little deceiving, according to Schofield.

"Our numbers are so small that one student can make a difference," he said.

Also notable is that a majority of students in Grade 12 are choosing higher academic courses. According to superintendent Judith Knapp, it has become a culture for some at Sir John high school.

"There is a real push at Sir John to be in the academic stream. Some students do struggle but they choose to be in these programs because they do open more doors in the future," she said.