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Rocky View students fare well on diploma exams

Rocky View Schools (RVS) students fared well in the 2009/10 Alberta Provincial Achievement Tests (PAT) and diploma exam results. The division’s Grade 12 students scored higher than the provincial average in all but Science 30.

Rocky View Schools (RVS) students fared well in the 2009/10 Alberta Provincial Achievement Tests (PAT) and diploma exam results.

The division’s Grade 12 students scored higher than the provincial average in all but Science 30.

“We are certainly happy with our results,” said Greg Bass, superintendent of schools. “We have shown improvement in most areas, which is what we continually try to do.”

In the last two years, more than 80 per cent of RVS Grade 12 students met acceptable standards on all diploma exams with the exception of this year’s Science 30 at 78.9 per cent.

The acceptable standard is considered 50 to 80 per cent and the standard of excellence is more than 80 per cent.

“I think that the academics are a real focus and our teachers have been working very hard at the ways they’ve been teaching,” said board chair Sylvia Eggerer.

“Our Grade 12 results are really good.”

RVS also improved upon eight of 11 subjects from last years’ PAT results.

The areas where the students regressed were Science 30, down 9.7 per cent to 78.9, Physics 30, dropping nearly eight per cent to 80.8 and Biology 30, which fell slightly from 85.1 to 83.9 per cent.

RVS has its own targets of 95 per cent to meet the acceptable standard and 25 per cent to hit the standard of excellence in all subjects.

“We’re trying to make these results stronger year over year,” said Bass.

“We hold ourselves to a very high standard within the system.”

“Compared to other systems, we’re strong, but (according to) our internal standards, we still have growth to achieve,” said Bass.

Participation in PATs was highest in English 30-1 at 64 per cent, Social 30-1 at 55 per cent and Biology 30 at 48.4 per cent.

In order to graduate, students must complete Grade 12 English and Social Studies but only require a Grade 11 science course.

Biology, Chemistry and Physics 30 had considerably higher participation rates than Science 30 in both 2009 and 2010.

RVS also outscored the Province in its previous three-year average among drop-out rates, high school completion rate and PATs meeting the acceptable and excellent standards.

The provincial drop-out rate over the last three years was 4.8 per cent while RVS was 3.4 per cent.

“We have a good drop out rate, it’s probably one of the lowest in the province,” said Bass. “I’m not going to compare with other boards but we are really proud of that.”


Airdrie Today Staff

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