More students are graduating on-time in the Northern Lights School Division. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

Annual report

Graduation rates rising at NLSD

Mar 13, 2019 | 5:03 PM

The on-time graduation rate for Northern Lights School Division students is improving.

That’s according to the school division’s 2017-2018 annual report, which states 42 per cent of students graduated on-time last June compared to 36 per cent in 2017. The overall rise can be contributed to an eight per cent boost in the number of First Nation and Metis students graduating as the rate for non-Indigenous students fell considerably. With success coach Shane Bird hired last November to increase rates at Churchill Community High School and Senator Myles Venne School, Director of Education Jason Young believes more students will graduate within a three-year timeframe.

“One of the biggest things we’re working on right now is we’re working on a [success] coach initiative,” Young said. “That’s showing signs of improvement and we’re really excited about that. It’s an approach where administration works with teachers … support staff [and] career transition advisor. With that collaborative approach, they’re able to help with that grad rate.”

Average final marks for students in fundamental Grade 10 and 11 classes, however, have fluctuated up and down compared to previous years. Most of the marks are also much lower than the provincial average as is the case with Science 10, where the average for NLSD students is 50 per cent but 73 per cent across the province. Other examples are English Language Arts B10 where NLSD students average 51 per cent but average 74 per cent across the province, as well as Math 10 where the average for NSLD is 53 per cent but 73 per cent provincially.

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Credit attainment also remains low as only 23 per cent of students earned eight or more Grade 10-12 credits in the last academic year. Across the province, 61 per cent of students are earning eight or more credits per year. Young also believes credit attainment rates should also rise with the hiring of a success coach, but he noted some schools are performing better than others in this specific area.

“At one school in our division, when they looked at the credit attainment piece, they had 100 per cent of their students get all their credits in high school,” he said. “As a school division, we’re always looking for ways we can engage students and strategies we can deploy within the schools to support student success.”

Young also noted some of the success in recent years can be contributed to the provincial government’s Following Their Voices initiatives at some of the division’s schools. The initiative is designed to raise the educational achievement of Indigenous students in Saskatchewan.

In total, there are 4,124 students in the Northern Light School Division being taught by 283 teachers at 20 schools. There are also 30 principals or vice-principals and 18 administrative and financial staff.

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno