Though CCSD 2024-25 student results in Grade 9 PATs and diploma exams largely improved from 2023-24 and were higher than the provincial average, an Alberta Education report showed the results aren’t all good.
Sixty-nine per cent of district students received an acceptable rating on their Grade 9 PAT results, 16 per cent received an excellence rating and 83 per cent of students receiving an acceptable diploma exam result were all evaluated at a middling intermediate by the Alberta Education Assurance Measures (AEAM).
Twenty-three-point-three per cent of students received an excellence on their diploma exam results, just higher than the provincial average and rated very high by the AEAMs.
Through individual subjects, CCSD diploma results were higher than provincial average in 12/22 categories. The 19.1 per cent of students receiving a standard of excellence rating in Social Studies 30-2 was 6.8 per cent higher than the provincial average, the highest difference of any category between district and province.
The 2.5 per cent of students receiving a standard of excellence rating on their French Language Arts 30-1 diploma exams was 3.5 percentage points lower than the provincial average, the lowest discrepancy between CCSD and Alberta student results as a whole.
John McDonald, CCSD Deputy Chief Superintendent, said that areas to monitor include CCSD math 30-1 and 30-2, Science 30 and French Language Arts levels, but did not specify a path towards improvement in those areas.
Though a low number and lower than the provincial average, the 1.3 per cent dropout rate of CCSD students was rated as very high.
Investments in Indigenous learning are proving worthwhile
As a whole CCSD students who are self-identified indigenous received diploma exam results higher than the provincial average in 18/22 subject categories.
Dr. Bryan Szumlas, CCSD Chief Superintendent, said that Calgary Catholic is very proud of the work the district as done with indigenous peoples as a whole.
“We have a team of about 12 individuals, led by a supervisor that belongs to the various nations that are part of Treaty Seven, but also our classroom teachers. For this board, Indigenous education is a priority; that’s why we’ve invested in this team to support our teachers to make connections with elders,” he said, during the Nov. 26 CCSD Board of Trustees meeting.
There are three main areas the district is working on when it comes to indigenous students, Szumlas said.
“One is for all people within Calgary Catholic to better understand the historical ways of the Indigenous People. Number two is to support our Indigenous students on the high school level by connecting them to a champion, someone who can help them with a graduation plan, and then lastly, our Elder circle, which will be meeting later this week and meets regularly throughout the year,” he said.
With these initiatives, the board has been putting money behind words. Szumlas said it has played a role in last year’s student diploma success, something he and the board are proud of.
Though the diploma results are a step, Superintendent Kathleen Kostiuk said that more work is to come.
“We significantly outperform the province (with Indigenous student diploma results), but we do recognize that our self-identified Indigenous results are still lower than our overall student results, there is still a gap, and we continue to work on that,” she said at the meeting.
“But we have seen that gap shrink a little bit every year, and we’re very proud of that.”
