At its regular public board meeting on February 11, the Board of Trustees concluded that the CBE is making reasonable progress towards meeting the expectations detailed in Results 2: Academic Success for the 2023-2024 school year.
The Results 2: Academic Success report is a comprehensive monitoring report that looks across all subject areas. The report provides assurance that CBE continues to make progress in supporting students in literacy and numeracy skills and the ability to integrate and apply the knowledge, skills, attitudes and competencies acquired across all academic disciplines.
Steady Progress in High-School Completion
The overall five-year high school completion rates showed a significant improvement, closing the gap between CBE and provincial averages. While the three-year and four-year completion rates saw a slight decline compared to the province as a whole, CBE demonstrated continual improvement with five out of 12 student cohorts maintaining or improving their completion rates.
"There is much to celebrate and there are areas for growth and continuous improvement," says Chief Superintendent, Joanne Pitman.
"This level of achievement is a direct result of our focus on ensuring students have the time, space and opportunity necessary to complete high school, in three, four, or five years. It a testament to the perseverance, dedication, and resilience of CBE students and staff."
This year's high school completion results are especially noteworthy considering the three, four, and five-year cohorts included students who were in Grade 10 in the 2020-2021, 2019-2020 and 2018-2019 school years respectively - a time marked by disruptions to learning and restrictions on social and physical interaction. During this time, CBE also experienced record enrolment growth, including increases in the number of English as an Additional Language learners. Having a higher percentage of EAL students can impact overall academic achievement results in the short term as EAL learners gain language proficiency.
Exam Results Compared to Provincial Average
CBE students exceeded provincial averages in all 11, 30-level diploma exams, at the acceptable and excellence levels. When compared with CBE results for 2022-2023, 30 level diploma results for students in every cohort increased in acceptable and excellence in 76 per cent of the cases and maintained in 4 per cent.
CBE's Provincial Achievement Test (PAT) results also demonstrated progress, with a greater percentage of students achieving the acceptable standard compared to provincial results in 54% of cases. A small percentage of results were lower than the provincial average, specifically in knowledge and employability courses. These results are being analyzed for areas of improvement.
Particularly encouraging were the results for students who self-identify as Indigenous, with six out of 11 PAT exams showing improvements over the previous year. The CBE is committed to continuing its efforts to support students who self-identify as Indigenous to further enhance their academic success.
Looking Ahead
Overall, the 2023-2024 results reflect the resilience and continued success of CBE students, as well as the commitment of educators, support staff and families to ensure that all students achieve their academic potential.
"CBE students are successful and continue to consistently outperform the province on provincial tests and exams" said Patricia Bolger, Chair, CBE Board of Trustees.
"These results are commendable, given our current context and context does matter. It is impressive that academic results have been maintained or improved in many areas."
Detailed results of the 2023-2024 Academic Achievement Monitoring Report are available online.
