Students in the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School have achieved above the provincial average in some academic areas, such as writing, reading and readiness to learn by kindergarten students.
The final academic results of student achievement in a number of areas were shared with the Holy Family board of trustees, along with the principals and vice-principals of all five Holy Family schools, at the monthly board meeting on Wednesday.
The results were shared to see how well Holy Family students matched up to the provincially-set academic targets, and how well the students compared to the rest of the province in academics.
The data focused on three areas: readiness to learn by kindergarten students, reading, writing and math results by students in Grades 1-9, and engagement with the schools for students in Grades 4-9.
The data includes 76 students in Holy Family who needed “intensive supports” to learn, and this includes students with physical impairments, autism or mental health issues. In addition, there were 137 English language learners, representing 18 different first languages.
The provincial target for kindergarten students is to have 90 per cent of them assessed as “ready to learn” when they leave to begin Grade 1, according to Early Years assessment.
For Holy Family, 87 per cent of kindergarten students were assessed as “ready to learn”, which was a 15-per-cent improvement from the fall to spring. This level of readiness was about the same as the previous year.
While this was slightly short of the provincial target, Holy Family is in the top five school divisions in the province, with the provincial average at 79 per cent.
“We’ve always been significantly ahead of the provincial average,” said Terry Jordens, noting that for attendance by Pre-K students, Holy Family lead the province with 98.8 per cent attendance, and was second in the province for kindergarten students at 99.4 per cent.
“This tells us our families are dedicated to come to our programs,” said Jordens.
This group of students included nine with intensive needs, and 23 English language learners.
In the academic area of reading, the provincial target is to have 80 per cent of students in Grades 1-9 reading at their grade level, and Holy Family students achieved this mark exactly. The growth in reading improved from January to June by 23 per cent, according to the assessments made for reading targets, and the school division improved from 78 per cent the year before.
Students in Grades 3 and 5 scored particularly high, said Jordens, while Grade 1 students scored eight per cent higher than the provincial average, Grade 2 was 10 per cent above and Grade 3 students were five per cent above average.
Holy Family students also excelled in writing, particularly in junior high grades. The goal provincially is for 80 per cent of students to achieve their grade level from Grades 1-9, and as last year was the first time for this to be measured provincially, a team of teachers developed a rubric for comparison purposes.
While all students were assessed in Holy Family, the provincial data only looked at achievements for Grades 4, 7 and 9, and Holy Family students were well above the provincial average in all three of these grades.
Grade 4 students scored 10 per cent above the average, and both Grades 7 and 9 students scored 17 per cent above the rest of the province.
In math, the provincial goal is for 80 per cent of students in Grades 1-9 to achieve their grade level. The provincial data is only being collected for the first time this year, so the data used was from the students’ report cards as of the end of June, explained Jordens.
In Holy Family, 83 per cent of students achieved the provincial math target. Broken down by grades, eight of the nine grades exceeded the target, with Grade 7 was lower, “which is a trend we’re aware of,” said Jordens.
In Grade 4, 91 per cent of the students achieved the target level.
For student engagement, students in Grades 4 to 9 were above the Canadian norm in 12 of 19 areas. In Grades 4-6, students were above the norm in five of nine measurements, and in Grades 7-9, they were above the norm in seven of 10 areas.
The data suggests that a student’s engagement in his or her school declines as they get older, said Jordens, noting Holy Family added their own questions relating to their well-being and deep learning, with one question asking what makes them anxious as students, and secondly, how their voice as a student is heard in learning in the class.
