14 Second Annual Report Card on Alberta’s High Schools Detailed School Results Getting the most out of the tables public school with a Grade 12 enrollment of 187 stu- dents. We include the enrollment to remind read- The tables provide a great deal of information, all ers to exercise caution when considering the data of which is worth attention. As a general rule, we for schools with relatively small enrollments. One recommend that all the statistics presented be would expect greater variation in the results of considered. No one number—indicator data, the schools with smaller enrollments. overall rating, or provincial ranking—can provide The Parents’ average education (yrs.) provides an as much information as the whole set. Parents indication of the socio-economic background of choosing a school will have to decide which, if the student body. It can be used to identify other any, of these measures of academic achievement schools whose students have similar socio- is important to them. Then, the data may form the economic backgrounds. A comparison of the re- basis of questions that parents can ask of teachers sults of these similar schools can identify those and administrators at the school. Similarly, while schools that are particularly effective in taking planning improvements, the school community socio-economic conditions into account in their may consider each number in the same way: Is it teaching and counselling. important to us? Do we want to improve this as- pect of our school’s performance? If so, how can Academic performance improvement be accomplished? Below the Parents’ average education (yrs.) are the See the example at the bottom of this page. The indicators of Academic Performance. Note that all items in the upper left-hand corner of the table the results—with the exception of the Courses provide information about the school and its stu- taken per student and the Overall rating out of ten— dents. Bert Church High School in Airdrie is a are expressed in percentage points. Where no re- Bert Church High School Rank in province Affiliation: Public 1999 1996-99 Grade 12 enrollment 187 Academic rank: 80 / 222 61 / 203 Parents’ avg. education (yrs.): 14.1 Gender gap rank: 122 / 190 88 / 156 Academic Performance 1996 1997 1998 1999 Average exam mark 62.5 65.4 64.2 65.7 Percentage of exams failed 19.6 15.0 14.9 12.9 School vs exam mark difference 3.1 2.7 3.9 3.8 Courses taken per student 3.4 3.6 3.7 3.4 Diploma completion rate 62.0 72.7 76.8 69.8 Overall rating out of ten 5.4 7.4 7.4 7.0 1998/1999 Course Results En 30 SS 30 Ma 30 Ma 33 Avg. exam mark (participation rate) 60.4 (59.1) 64.8 (51.3) 70.7 (42.2) 54.7 (36.4) Gender Gap 1996 1997 1998 1999 English 30 school mark difference F 3.6 F 5.4 F 5.1 F 3 Math 30 school mark difference F 0.6 F 6.4 F 2.9 M 5 Fraser Institute Studies in Educational Policy 15 sults were produced or where small numbers of 1998/1999 Course Results results were suppressed for privacy reasons, “n/a” Below the Overall rating are the 1998/1999 Course appears in the tables. Results. These include the average examination First, look at the statistics for the school year mark (Avg. exam mark) and the participation rate for 1998/1999 (labelled “1999”). Referring to the decile English 30, Social Studies 30, Mathematics 30 and range tables in Appendix 1, notice where the av- Mathematics 33, the four diploma courses (see erage examination mark falls compared to the Note 1 on page 17) most frequently taken by stu- base year values. The Average exam mark statistic dents at Bert Church High School. Both numbers (65.7 percent) puts Bert Church High School in should be taken into account. The average examina- the top 30 percent of base-year school results. It tion mark is a reflection of the effectiveness of the also falls in the top 30 percent on the indicator, teaching effort at the school. The participation rate Percentage of examinations failed. These two indica- shows the extent to which the students have been tors suggest that, on average, teachers at the encouraged to participate in these important aca- school have been relatively effective in teaching demic courses. Ideally, the statistics would show the material contained in the diploma courses. both a high average mark and a high participation The school falls in the top 20-percent range on the rate. Compare the results from Bert Church High indicator, School vs exam mark difference. This School in different courses. For example, in Math- shows that at Bert Church High School, the ematics 30 the school’s average examination mark school-based assessments are reasonably accu- was 6.1 percentage points higher than the provin- rate predictors of the subsequent diploma exami- cial average (see table 1 on page 17) while the par- nation marks received. Bert Church’s value on ticipation rate was about the same as that of the the indicator, Courses taken per student (3.4 courses province overall. In English 30, however, the aver- in 1998/1999) falls in the bottom 40-percent range age examination mark was nearly three percent- indicating that students at the school may not be age points lower than the provincial average taking advantage of these core courses to the ex- while the participation rate was some five per- tent that others around the province are. Finally, centage points higher than the province overall. Bert Church High School’s Diploma completion rate Also compare both statistics for each course with (69.8 percent in 1998/1999) falls just around the corresponding results from other schools. middle of the base-year results. Now compare the 1998/1999 results on each of Gender Gap these indicators to the school’s results in earlier At the bottom of the table are the Gender Gap calcu- years. lations for English 30 and Mathematics 30 for all four years. At Bert Church High School, the differ- Overall rating out of ten ence in English 30 consistently favours female stu- The Overall rating out of ten (Bert Church scored 7.0 dents and is quite large. While this is not an in 1998/99) takes into account the school’s perform- unusual result, there is no evidence to suggest that ance on all five of the indicators discussed above. male students’ results cannot be improved. The gap The school’s provincial academic ranking of eighti- in Mathematics is more erratic but still favours fe- eth out of 222 (shown in the top right hand corner male students. As a result, Bert Church ranks in the of the table) is based on this Overall rating. The middle of the pack on the Gender Gap ranking over school ranked even higher (sixty-first out of 203) on the longer term and somewhat below the median its five-year average overall rating. Bert Church’s ranking for 1998/1999. The Gender Gap rankings (de- strong long-term ranking shows that the school has rived from the sum of the two absolute values) are been consistently effective over the years. found at the top right-hand corner of the table. 16 Second Annual Report Card on Alberta’s High Schools Overall, the school community at Bert Church Note 2 High School should be pleased about these results Not all the province’s high schools are included in but not complacent. There is room for improve- the tables or the ranking. Excluded are schools at ment along all of the measured dimensions of which fewer than 25 students were enrolled in school performance. To see what is possible, com- grade 12. These schools do not generate a suffi- pare the results at Bert Church High School with ciently large set of student data to allow a fair and those at other schools in the vicinity and around reasonable analysis and presentation of the re- the province. You can also compare the school’s sults. Also excluded from the ratings and rankings results to those of the province as a whole by re- are adult education centres; continuing education ferring to provincial averages provided in the Im- facilities; schools that cater largely to non-resident portant Notes to the Detailed Tables below. foreign students; and certain alternative schools. The exclusion of a school from the Second An- Important Notes to the Detailed Tables nual Report Card on Alberta’s High Schools should in no way be construed as a judgement of the Note 1 school’s effectiveness. Diploma courses are those grade 12 courses, suc- cessful completion of which requires the student Note 3 to write a uniform provincial final examination. At Where there was insufficient data available with present, there are 11 such courses: Biology 30, which to calculate an indicator or where a school Chemistry 30, English 30, English 33, Français 30 was not in operation during a specific year, “n/a” (for francophone students only), Mathematics 30, appears in the tables. Mathematics 33, Physics 30, Science 30, Social Studies 30, and Social Studies 33. The term “di- Note 4 ploma examination” refers to the uniform provin- You can compare a school’s results with province- cial examination in a diploma course. wide results in table 1 below. Table 1 1998/1999 Report Card for Alberta as a whole Academic Performance Course Results Exam mark Participation rate Average exam mark 63.5 Biology 30 65.9 (38.9) Percentage of exams failed 18.0 Chemistry 30 63.7 (37.0) School vs exam mark difference 5.9 English 30 63.2 (55.2) Courses taken per student 3.4 English 33 63.2 (29.4) Diploma completion rate 68.8 Français 30 66.8 (0.2) Overall rating out of ten 5.9 Math 30 64..6 (42.9) Math 33 58.6 (26.7) Gender Gap Physics 30 68.5 (22.3) English 30 school mark difference F 3.9 Science 30 65.7 (4.7) Math 30 school mark difference M 0.2 Social Studies 30 64.8 (49.7) Social Studies 33 62.3 (34.4) Note: The Academic Performance indicators and the Overall rating out of ten are calculated from the by-school data collected for this Report Card.