| Chinook students above average |
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| Local Content - Local News |
| Written by publisher |
| Tuesday, 05 January 2010 19:14 |
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By Allison Werbowetsky According to the 2008-09 Core Indicators Report — an annual study comparing Chinook School Division students’ grade scores with those of the entire province — high school students in Chinook School Division scored higher in 16 of 17 subject areas. Director of education, Liam Choo-Foo attributes the high scores to new programs the school division has implemented over the last year. “Here in Chinook, and especially in the last couple of years, we’ve really tried to tighten our focus on student learning,” he said. However, some of the programs the division has put in place are only just beginning to hit the ground running. Programs such as the balanced literacy initiative implemented in 2007, and now the new math curriculum, will likely not produce the anticipated results until much later. “We’re not going to see the real impact of what we’re doing for a few years. That’s one thing in education, it seems as though you make quite an investment initially, but it’s an ongoing process. You know, we’re talking about children’s development over a period of 12 years,” Choo-Foo said. Chinook has focussed on developing education in the younger grades, and “getting them on the right foot,” he continued. “Our research shows that if you can get students to read at grade level by Grade 3, they will have a successful school career. So, we’re really putting our emphasis there, initially.” As for high school, the report indicated that Chinook’s total grade-point average — including both males and females — was an impressive 2.4 per cent higher than the rest of the province, ranking in at 74 per cent. The provincial average is 71.6 per cent. Chinook female students scored an entire five per cent higher than their male counterparts, scoring 76.5 per cent compared to the 71.5 per cent average earned by male students. There were 2.8 per cent more males enrolled in Chinook schools than females. The school division’s graduating rate was at 90 per cent, an entire 10 per cent higher than the provincial 80 per cent. Student enrolment was 6,295 last year, which was an increase of 37 students from 2007-08. Enrolment for the entire province dropped from 194,035 to 193,852 in the last year. First Nations and Métis enrolment increased from 90 to 121 over the last three years in Chinook School Division. However, the number of Hutterian students enrolled within Chinook dropped from 611 in the previous two years to 590. Another interesting statistic is the pupil-to-teacher ratio (PTR). Chinook has approximately one teacher to every 13 students, whereas the province has one to every 14.5 students. Technically, Chinook has 45 more teachers than it would if it was on par with the provincial average. Without them, the division would save $3 million per year in staffing costs. However, Choo-Foo says reducing the number of teachers would not be beneficial in the long run. “Staffing is roughly 70 per cent of our school division costs, not just teachers, but all of our staff. Quite frankly, I am very comfortable with that (number) because our population is extremely dispersed and so it’s really important for us to be able to have a certain number of schools within close enough geography so we’re not putting kids on buses for two hours,” he said. However, “with that comes the lack of ability to create classrooms that have 20 or 25 students in them with a teacher in front of them. The way that our population is dispersed within Chinook, it just does not allow us to do that. If we were a city school division such as Lloydminster, Saskatoon or Regina it would be quite easy to significantly increase that PTR,” he added. As a result, the average operational cost per student increased as well. In Chinook, it cost $10,755 last year, whereas the province only expensed $8,721 per student. That works out to a $2,034 difference. “Certainly having a low PTR does increase our cost per student,” Choo-Foo said, explaining how busing costs, extra staff and more facilities would have that kind of effect. “Our board does not have the ability to tax locally, so whatever funding that comes from the ministry is what we’ll have to operate with. We’re working very hard with the ministry to try to get them to understand some of the challenges we face due to our dispersed population,” he added. |
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