More than 84 Cree School Board students will graduate in ceremonies planned for August and September, a significant increase over recent years.
"This is the highest number of June graduates we have had under the current system which has been in place since 2011," said Director of School Operations Kimberly Quinn. "We couldn't be more proud of the students, teachers, school administrators, and school board for this achievement."
In all, 71 students graduated following June exams; another 13 had completed graduation requirements after exam sessions in January and April.
Quinn added that the number of graduates is expected to still rise for the 2018-2019 school year once summer-school is complete in early August. It is the first year the Board has offered summer school in each community.
"We wanted to ensure every student in Secondary IV and V who could benefit had the chance to attend and be successful, without the worry of traveling to another community and staying in unfamiliar surroundings," Quinn said.
Quinn said there are a number of reasons for the growth in graduation rates.
She cited the diligent and consistent application of board-wide best practices in the schools and classrooms - programs such as the Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum (GVC) which helps to standardize both teaching and benchmarks for all students, and programs such as Response to Intervention (RTI) which helps to better prepare younger students to enter secondary school set for success, and the use of Professional Learning Communities (PLC) in schools to help provide targeted strategies to assist students as they require it.
"It's also the families who are essential to student success," Quinn added. "Their support and involvement in education help to create more engaged students. Our effort to focus on student success, to create meaningful learning opportunities for our students, and to continue to prepare them to be contributing members of the Cree Nation and society at large are a strong foundation that begins in Pre-Kindergarten and continues right through Secondary V."
