Each year, diploma exam results are released, and Aspen View associate superintendent Mark Francis said how they are interpreted is as important as the results themselves.
Aspen View Public School Division has released its 2012–2013 diploma exam results for semesters one and two, and Francis said the school division looks at what trends the results show over a five-year period.
“These results are an indication; they are one measure,” Francis said. “We always advise that interpretation of individual achievements on diploma exams is best done by the individual classroom teacher.”
For 2012–2013, Aspen View scored above the provincial average on four of the 17 diploma exams written by its students; it scored below the provincial average on the 13 others.
However, Aspen View has seen some positive results in its diploma exam results over the last several years.
“Most of our averages are fairly close, if not above the provincial average,” Francis said. “Anything plus or minus five per cent would be a standard deviation.”
Aspen View only scored below that five-per-cent standard deviation from the provincial average on two diploma exams: Physics 30 and Math 30-1 semester one exams.
The division scored 5.6 percentage points higher than the provincial average on the semester two Biology 30 exam and nearly five percentage points higher on the semester one English 30-1 exam.
Francis said looking at one year in isolation gives the division limited feedback.
“It does point out areas. If we have an exam that is below 50 per cent, that is an area that we would ask the schools to look at,” he added. “The principal and teacher would examine what happened. Did something go wrong?”
He explained the schools look for solutions or reasons if the results were lower than expected.
“If I teach for 10 years, and one year my exam average is 50 per cent, but every other year it has been 70 per cent … we don’t like to hold up the one year and say something is wrong,” Francis said.
Francis stressed diploma exams are only one measure of how a school is doing.
“Despite what the Fraser Report likes to think about using these results as a definitive ranking of schools, these are one measure,” he said.
The Fraser Institute uses diploma exams to rank high schools relative to one another. It has ranked Edwin Parr 199th out of 241 Alberta high schools in the most recent five years, though the 2012-2013 diploma results have yet to be factored into those rankings.
One area in which the division has been lower than it would like is math; however, during the 2012-2013 year, Aspen View’s Math 30-2 diploma score was higher than the provincial average in semester two (the only time the exam was offered in the division that year).
For the Math 30-1 diploma exams, Aspen View came in below the provincial average both semesters.
“We have introduced some math supports at the earlier grades to try and see those results climb, though,” Francis explained. “This is our third year.”
Francis explained the division is tracking the success of the program.
“We are looking at Grade 12 diploma exam results; it is like looking at the last 100 steps of a marathon,” he said. “You don’t judge the whole marathon on the last 100 steps. We have 12 or 13 years of education. Looking at any results, we always have to look back at those multiple years.”
In the last few years, Francis said the division has been lower in the number of students achieving the standard of excellence. However, it seems to be on the increase again.
“We seem to be getting a few more students writing at the standard of excellence,” he said.
