Calgary Catholic School District releases provincial test results

Oct. 2, 2012

Calgary, Alberta – The results of Calgary Catholic School District’s 2011-2012 provincial achievement tests and diploma examination results released today show students continue to perform well in relation to the province.

“Our results show that we have a lot to celebrate in terms of how well our students performed in provincial tests this year,” said Chief Superintendent Gary Strother. “We also know that we have areas where we need to improve, and we’ll be working to put plans in place to address those areas throughout the year.”

Accountability Pillar Results
The overall accountability pillar results measure a school jurisdiction’s performance using provincial test results as one measure of success. Highlights from the 2011-2012 results include:
• Strong high school completion rates, with 80.4 per cent of CCSD students graduating in three years, a result that was 6.3 per cent above the provincial average of 74.1 per cent.
• CCSD’s transition to post-secondary rate was 69.0 per cent, 10.6 per cent higher than provincial rates.
• Rutherford Scholarship eligibility (students earning an average of 75 per cent or higher in any of the eligible grades 10, 11 or 12 courses) was 4.1 per cent higher than the province at 65.6 per cent.
• CCSD’s dropout rate was 1.5 per cent compared to the provincial rate of 3.2 per cent.

Provincial Achievement Tests (Grade 3, 6, 9 students who wrote the test)
The overall summary comparison of CCSD to the province shows that CCSD exceeded provincial results by 1.5 per cent at the acceptable standard, and 2.0 per cent at the standard of excellence. In all 10 subjects, CCSD scored above the province at the acceptable standard and above the province at the standard of excellence. Additional highlights include:

At the Standard of Excellence
• High performance by all grades at the standard of excellence, with scores that were higher than the province by 3.5 per cent in Grade 3 English language arts, 4.6 per cent in Grade 3 mathematics, 4.3 per cent in Grade 6 English language arts, 3.9 per cent in Grade 6 mathematics, 3.2 per cent in Grade 9 English language arts and 2.2 per cent in Grade 9 mathematics.

At the Acceptable Standard
• Grade 3 mathematics: CCSD students scored 88.6 per cent, 5.3 per cent higher than the province.
• Grade 6 mathematics: CCSD students scored 89.2 per cent, 7.3 per cent higher than the province.
• Grade 6 science: CCSD students scored 91.4 per cent, 5.6 per cent higher than the province.
• Grade 6 social studies: CCSD students scored 88.1 per cent, 7.1 per cent higher than the province.
• Grade 9 English language arts: CCSD students scored 93.3 per cent, 6.2 per cent higher than the province.
• Grade 9 mathematics: CCSD students scored 78.7 per cent, 5.5 per cent higher than the province.
• Grade 9 science: CCSD students scored 87.7 per cent, which is 5.7 per cent higher than the province.
• Grade 9 social studies: CCSD students scored 83.5 per cent, which is 6.6 per cent higher than the province.

Achievement in the areas of grades 3 and 9 French language courses are a focus for improvement. CCSD has developed several action plans to address these focus areas, including the creation of a French school of excellence at St. Rose of Lima, continued professional development for teachers and purchasing new French resources.

Diploma Examinations (High School)
CCSD students continued to perform well in the 2011-2012 diploma examinations when compared to the province. Of particular note is that a higher percentage of CCSD students continued to enroll in more challenging courses. The participation rate in 9 of 11 diploma exams was above provincial rates. Additional highlights include:
• English 30-1 results were 10.5 per cent higher than the province, and pure mathematics 30 results were 7.2 per cent above the province.
• Physics 30 results were 5.0 per cent higher at the acceptable standard, and 1.2 per cent higher at the standard of excellence compared to provincial results.
• Applied mathematics 30 scores were 2.9 per cent above the province at the acceptable standard.
• Social studies 30-1 scores were 1.4 per cent above the province at the acceptable standard and 1.5 per cent above at the standard of excellence (an increase of 4.3 per cent over last year’s results).

Science 30, Chemistry 30 and English language arts 30-2 results were below provincial averages and will be a focus for improvement in the coming year.

For achievement test results, please visit: default.asp?V_ITEM_ID=210. For diploma exam results, please visit: default.asp?V_ITEM_ID=211.

The Calgary Catholic School District (CCSD) is the largest Catholic school district in Alberta, serving over 49,000 students in 105 schools located in Calgary, Airdrie, Cochrane, Chestermere and the Municipal District of Rocky View. CCSD educates and empowers students from kindergarten to Grade 12 through its mission of Living and Learning in our Catholic Faith.


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For further information, please contact:
Tania Younker
Director, Communications
Calgary Catholic School District
office: (403) 500-2763