YCS examines their exams
Board looks at how St. Patrick High School students stack up against Alberta counterparts using three-year trend
Kirsten Fenn
Northern News Services
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A new system developed last year to analyze Grade 12 exam results at St. Patrick High School is helping administration examine students' strengths and weaknesses.
St. Pat's principal Coleen McDonald presented a spreadsheet of data to Yellowknife Catholic Schools (YCS) board members at a Nov. 16 meeting that highlighted which exam questions were an area of concern for students and how they stacked up to the Alberta student average.
"It's the first year that we've used this ... data approach," McDonald said. "What it allows us to do is to take the important information and put it in an order and display method that we can easily see the trends."
The school analyzed the results of Grade 12 exams from 2013 to 2016 in all subjects, ranging from math to social studies to English. That data was then compiled into charts that list the grade average for each question on the exam, colour-coding them green, yellow or red based on whether they were an area of strength, moderate strength or in need of improvement.
"In general," McDonald said, "we do very well compared to Alberta."
But if the grade differential between Alberta and St. Patrick High School's average grade percentage is higher than 10 on any question, McDonald said that would indicate an area that needs to be flagged.
"Then we probably have to check that curricular outcome and perhaps re-teach it, perhaps teach it in a different way," she said.
Another chart presented to the YCS board set out a plan for how that would be done for each subject, using math as an example. On it is a breakdown of math units - trigonometry, relations, equations - and improvement goals that teachers should work toward during meetings throughout the year.
"We're always looking at improvement," McDonald told Yellowknifer in an interview.
"As in everything, right, you can always do better. So we're constantly looking at the data to do better."
Last November, St. Pat's assistant principal Todd Stewart announced to the YCS board that the school would be taking a new approach to analyzing exam results as the school had scored lower on advanced placement tests in comparison to Alberta, except for in French.
Four students took the advanced English exam this May, McDonald told the YCS board at last week's meeting. Two of those students earned a score of four out of five on their test and were granted university equivalency for first-year English.
Two students scored four out of five on the French language arts exam, while three scored perfect on the advanced calculus test, she said.
Five students were tested for calculus altogether.
McDonald told Yellowknifer she did not have information about how these results compared to Alberta.
Although board members had few questions about the new exam analysis, trustee Revi Lau-a suggested the high school could examine the data on a year-to-year basis as well as long-term.
Classes are different each year, "but those differences can be normalized and identify some key areas for improvement," he said.
He also questioned whether focusing on areas of the curriculum that seemingly need improvement could detract from students' strengths.
"I guess I'm interested in seeing the data around that," he said.
"As this is the first year, so are we," McDonald said.
