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Education department 'not pleased' with territory's academic results Smaller communities see lower attendance and grades partly due to high teacher turnover, according to report
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, July 22, 2013
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
The average student in the NWT attended school 84.4 per cent of the time in the 2011/12 school year, according to statistics released on July 18.
The attendance figure is lower in small community schools, where the average student attended 80.8 per cent of the time, compared to 89.1 per cent in Yellowknife and 81.8 per cent in the regional centres of Fort Smith, Hay River and Inuvik.
The report states, a student who has an 80 per cent attendance rate misses one day of school each week, and by Grade 10, will have missed the equivalent of two years of class.
The territorial government recently presented the 2012 Alberta Achievement Tests, functional grade levels, and attendance results.
The achievement tests are one-off, standardized tests that measure student performance in NWT curriculum in language arts and math.
The functional grade levels show the performance of students in different aspects of the education system over the school year, and whether a student has mastered or achieved the curricular outcomes for the preceding grade level.
"As a department, of course, we're not thrilled at the results," said Rita Mueller, assistant deputy minister with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. "We wish they were stronger."
In particular, Mueller said the results show there is a "huge gap" between student achievement in smaller communities, and Yellowknife and the regional centres.
"It's obvious that we have to do something differently," she said.
The average attendance was highest in grades 3 and 4 - 89.3 per cent and 89.6 per cent, respectively - and then dropped until Grade 10 and its low point of 76.7 per cent.
Attendance rates only include students who attend school, according to the report.
Overall, an average of 65 per cent of students - from a high of 83 per cent in Grade 1 to a low of 60 per cent in Grade 8 - were working at the appropriate grade level for their age in English language arts. Students in Yellowknife and the regional centres performed best, followed by those in smaller communities.
In mathematics, approximately 63 per cent of students were working at the appropriate grade level of curriculum for their age in the 2011/12 school year, again with the lowest rates in the communities.
"Each year, these results help track student performance and the success of the education system in the Northwest Territories," stated Education, Culture and Employment Minister Jackson Lafferty in a news release.
"We know, however, that they only provide snapshots of particular kinds of learning."
Mueller said the recently-started Education Renewal Initiative is addressing that gap by focusing on the kindergarten to Grade 12 system in a partnership with education authorities and the Northwest Territories Teachers' Association.
As for why the gap exists between the smaller communities and the larger centres, Mueller said student attendance, which is higher in Yellowknife and the regional centres, plays a significant role. She said the department and education authorities are aware low attendance is a problem, and have tried many different initiatives to get more children in school.
However, she said there is still a long way to go to get students in class every day and have parents recognize the importance of sending their children to school.
Mueller also said another reason for the difference in student achievement is the higher turnover of teachers in smaller communities compared to Yellowknife and regional centres.
She said a higher turnover of teachers means it takes more time for them to develop essential relationships with students, parents and the communities.
Lafferty stated that in the NWT, an education renewal initiative has been started, and "assessment that truly measures student learning is one of the areas we will address."
Organizers of the initiative have been engaging with stakeholders for the past several months to determine gaps and successes in the NWT education system, and to use the information to guide a new
direction for education in the North.
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