For the first time in years, the Revelstoke School District did not meet its lofty 90-per-cent target for student literacy at the end of grade three.
According to a report by superintendent Mike Hooker, 83 per cent of grade three students were reading at grade level – the first time in years where the goal of 90 per cent was not met.
“This represents four students that dropped us below our target,” he told the Board of Education at its meeting last week. “That’s a small cohort group and our principals and learning support teachers will make sure they get that grade four support.”
The Achievement Contract is an annual report that looks at three overarching goals for the school district. They are in literacy, high school graduation and student health and well-being.
The school district also didn’t meet its literacy target for grade one – with only 53 per cent of 86 students reading at or above grade level. Hooker said the district will look to provide extra support to those students.
For most other grades, targets were met or exceeded, or were very close to being met.
Graduation rates remain high. While the actual statistics were not available, there were only three students who were removed from the Times Review graduation photo spread on pages B6–7 of this issue. Transition rates between grades in high school were also high. Course failure rates are at or below three per cent, said Hooker.
The district’s newest goal on health and well-being was introduced last year.
“The last bit of our work to do now is start addressing the needs of vulnerable students who are experiencing less success than they should for things that are out of our control in a typical classroom environment, and that’s to do with social-emotional learning,” said Hooker. “There is a lot that can be done in that way, and we have begun some of that work. That has become more of a focus of the district, that we are attending to their social and emotional well being.”
So far, the data is mixed. Only about one-quarter of grade seven and grade 10 students said they are learning how to stay healthy. On the positive side, around 80 per cent of students in grades four, seven, 10 and 12 reported being connected to two or more adults at school. The majority said four or more adults “care about me.”
“It truly speaks to the relationships in our schools between kids and families and their teachers,” said Hooker. “It really puts us in a good position to deal with social and emotional well being because in an important key is to have someone you connect to.”