A group of students from Oliver Elementary School recently demonstrated sign language during an assembly. From left are Brayden Lee, Raylynn Konradsen, Sarah Yakachuk, Keanna Moss, Jade Stevens and Sophia Hoffman-Hacking. Photo by Lyonel Doherty
Completion rates for students in the Okanagan-Similkameen are improving, but remain slightly below the provincial average. Meanwhile, aboriginal students continue to lag behind non-aboriginal students in major areas of student achievement.
These are some of the key points laid out in School Superintendent Bev Young’s Annual Report on Student Achievement, which Young presented at a board of education meeting Feb. 24.
The report contains a broad overview of the strengths and challenges the school district faces, as well as results from the Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) for students in Grades 4 and 7.
The results of the assessment show aboriginal students in both grades continuing to score below non-aboriginal students in reading, writing and numeracy, with reading scores remaining significantly lower.
In an interview Feb. 26, Young cautioned that while the FSA provides valuable insight, it is only “one assessment, one time a year, for small groups of kids,” and needs to be considered alongside other indicators.
She did stress that the FSA is useful for identifying trends, and that trends show a gap in performance between aboriginal and non-aboriginal students.
“So we really need to pay attention to that,” she said.
She said the district has goals designed to help its aboriginal students achieve success and programs geared towards them. Partnerships with the aboriginal community and some of the programs seem to be making a difference, too.
“We are noticing improvements over time, for sure, but they’re just not on par with our non-aboriginal students, so we do have to close that gap,” she said.
Data in the report also shows that School District 53’s six-year completion rates (which measure how many students graduate high school) have risen close to 10 percentage points since the 2010/2011 school year, settling just over 80 per cent in 2015, a few points below the provincial average.
Young said it’s “exciting” that there is a “definite overall improvement” in completion rates, and chalks the rising trend up to the district’s efforts to connect with its students in meaningful ways.
Nevertheless, the completion rate still sits below the provincial average, and Young said the key to completely closing that gap will be addressing social and emotional learning, “so kids have a connection to their teachers, they have a connection to their school, they want to be there, they’ve got choice in that there’s personalized learning, they feel that there’s adults that care about them and feel that they can be successful in their lives.”
Young said the district wants to ensure that high school is “really preparing kids for their future goals,” so it needs to offer multiple paths to graduation, for a wide breadth of students.
“That is what’s going to bring relevance. If we have students that are struggling anyways and they don’t see value or relevance, then it’s hard to become engaged, and they’re less successful,” she said.
Young also pointed out that the district sees more students move away than some other districts, which also impacts completion rates.
For more information, visit the district website.
By Trevor Nichols
