Grade 12 students in the St. Albert Protestant system had more difficulty passing diploma exams last year than their Catholic counterparts.
The Protestant system, which includes students from both Bellerose and Paul Kane, did however have a slightly higher overall pass rate than students across the province.
"We are paying close attention to the provincial diploma results and we can see that our results are close to the provincial results. There has been more attention to recent areas of concern, where our students appear to have struggled," said Glenys Edwards.
The associate superintendent explained that the St. Albert Protestant school system has hired a consultant to do an in-depth analysis of the diploma pass rates over the last several years.
"We are looking at how we can improve our instructional strategies and resources to support our teachers," said Edwards.
Overall, 83.5 per cent of diploma-writing students in the Protestant system passed the test. This compares to an overall pass rate of 88.6 per cent for Greater St. Albert Catholic students. Provincially the overall percentage of students who achieved a pass was 82.6 per cent.
Greater St. Albert Catholic School District began its own analysis three years ago and the results this year reflect a gradual change in strategy.
"The results for our division this year were the strongest we ever had," said GSACRD superintendent David Keohane. "Three years ago our overall pass rate was 85 per cent. That compares with this year when the pass rate was 89 per cent. This was a banner year for our school district."
Course by course
A subject-by-subject breakdown shows Bellerose and Paul Kane students had the most difficulty with the Physics 30 exam.
Only 68 per cent of students in the Protestant school system passed the exam, compared to an 83 per cent pass rate at GSACRD, which includes students from St. Albert Catholic High School, Morinville High School and Ecole Secondaire Sainte Marguerite d'Youville.
But Edwards cautioned against reading too much into the Physics 30 results because students in the Bellerose International Baccalaureate program and Paul Kane's Advanced Placement program do not take that course.
"The students in these programs tend to be our best students and because they have such a heavy course load, with more maths, they don't take Physics 30. The Physics 30 pass rate is a concern, but it represents a small number of students and a small sample size," Edwards said.
Math 30 (Pure) results were lower across the province than the 85 per cent rate anticipated by Alberta Education. Across the province 81 per cent of students who wrote Math 30 (Pure), passed. The St. Albert Protestant system had a pass rate of 76 per cent compared to the GSACRD pass rate of 84 per cent.
Students in both St. Albert school systems excelled in English 30-1, with 93 per cent of GSACRD students passing compared to 88.6 per cent in the Protestant district.
The number of students achieving honours was also counted. Nearly 20 per cent of GSACRD's Grade 12 students achieved honours while 15.2 per cent of the students at Bellerose and Paul Kane passed with a mark of 80 per cent or better.
The St. Albert Protestant school board will be examining the participation rate of its students to see how many are registered in the higher levels of math, social and English, Edwards said.
"Our consultant has asked us to keep two factors in mind: the participation rate in the higher-sequence courses and the high enrolment numbers in Grade 12, compared to the enrolment levels at the kindergarten levels," she said.
