Medicine Hat, AB – It’s not just the students who need to make the grades.
School boards are tested too.
The Catholic Board of Education scored extremely well in the provincial government’s 2019 ‘Accountability Pillar Survey.’
“It’s really important to have both parental and student feedback because although sometimes we think we’re doing a good job, it’s great to get that little vote of confidence from parents and students as well to make sure that we’re doing the best we possibly can to serve the needs of our students,” said superintendent Dwayne Zarichny.
The survey asks parents, students, and teachers to rank how well and satisfied they are in 16 different categories.
For the catholic board, nine of those came back as “excellent”, the top score.
The Prairie Rose School Division almost matched, with eight “excellent” marks.
“We certainly have a staff that is working incredibly hard to design exceptional learning experiences for students. And we’re happy that these results are so positive and indicates their hard work.” said assistant superintendent, Reagan Weeks.
Both ranked high in categories such as “safe and caring”, “Education Quality”, and “work preparation.”
“Work preparation is certainly something that our parent population has indicated to us as really important to them. So we strive to include that in all of our schools’ different opportunities to develop all different sorts of skill sets. And it gives the chance for students to shine,” Weeks said.
Each had their struggles though.
Both had a category that was listed as an “issue.”
For the catholic side, they came in below the provincial average for the number of diploma exams taken by their grade 12 students.
Zarichny says that to him, that is a year to year issue.
Explaining that if they have a smaller graduating class, just a couple of students can make a difference.
“Looking at the number of students that actually are in grade 12, really the decease we experience probably is only two or three students chose to only write three exams as opposed to four or more,” he said.
For Prairie Rose, their “issue” is a below-average drop out rate.
The division attributes some of that to children from military families.
Those families often move around a lot and are considered to have “dropped out” if they leave the province.
“So they very well may be finishing school stationed elsewhere in Canada or in Britain, anywhere in the commonwealth. So that is a factor that impacts us differently than perhaps other school divisions,” Weeks continued. “And then additionally, we serve a population that transitions into the workforce earlier. We have a number of colony schools that we serve, as well as some other populations that typically do not stay in the school system as long as the general population in Alberta.”
The Medicine Hat Public School Division was not available for comment, saying that they plan on presenting their results to their board in the new year.
