East Three making strides
High school notes improvements
Shawn Giilck
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, October 24, 2013
INUVIK
A comprehensive plan at East Three Secondary School to increase student success and attendance is showing some clear success.
A comprehensive plan's findings were presented earlier this month during the annual general meeting of the Inuvik District Education Authority for improvements at East Three School. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo
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The findings were presented earlier this month during the annual general meeting of the Inuvik District Education Authority by school principal Deb Maguire.
Denise Kurszewski, the superintendent of schools for the Beaufort-Delta Education Council, said she was very pleased with the school's efforts.
"They're doing some very good things there, and have a lot of new programs to offer," she said.
The plan outlines four goals for the school. Those are to improve student performance in literacy and numeracy, to increase student attendance and engagement, to offer more career and guidance counselling, and to enhance aboriginal and cultural programming. The school is also focusing on improving school-to-home communications.
As with most schools in the NWT, attendance is an ongoing challenge for East Three, although clear improvements are being made. Maguire said in her presentation that the school showed an overall attendance rate of a little more than 73 per cent in 2012. Grade 10 students showed the worst rate at 63 per cent, while Grade 7 students had the best at 86.49.
Grades 11 and 12 showed an improvement in attendance, up to 78.45 per cent.
The plan calls for an overall improvement of 10 per cent in attendance, and it's also striving to make the students more interested in school activities.
There was a 41 per cent decrease in student disciplinary activities as well, along with a 50 per cent decrease in suspensions.
As for academic success rates, the Alberta Achievement Test results in June 2013 showed 80 per cent of students were at an acceptable standard, with an average of 85 per cent in writing, and 75 per cent in reading.
Maguire said student support plans are being reviewed and revised to help increase those numbers, particularly in grades 7 to 9 .
The school has also been making strides in offering more and more traditional culture activities to all students.
East Three has been developing on-the-land programs that offer students credits for successful completion. The programs also aim to instill a "sense of place" to the students by providing a variety of Northern and cultural experiences to the student body as a whole.
Among those activities are Northern and Dene games events during Snow Week.
As for career and guidance counselling, the goal for the school is to "increase the compulsory career and program plan (CPP) course completion to 100 per cent by the end of Grade 9," Maguire said.
That will happen by "increasing work experience, apprenticeship, volunteer community service, and career exploration opportunities for all students."
