PRINCE ALBERT — The Saskatchewan Rivers School Division has made significant improvements in its graduation rates over the last year.
The division has reported improvements in First Nations Metis Inuit (FNMI), non-FNMI and overall graduation rates when compared with the 2021-2022 school year.
For 2022-2023, the three-year graduation rates for Sask Rivers had a 73 per cent rate for all students, 90 per cent for non-FNMI and 60 per cent for FNMI. The provincial average for all students is 79 per cent, for non-FNMI, it is 89 per cent and for FNMI it is 45 per cent.
In 2021-2022 the three-year graduation rates for Sask Rivers had a 62 per cent rate for all students, 87 per cent for non-FNMI and 45 per cent for FNMI.
Director of Education Neil Finch said they’re pleased with the results. He said that they could not place a direct line between any single item which could account for the improvement. Instead, Finch said there were several factors.
“Mentors have been a great engagement for students that just need that extra support. Our teachers are doing a really good job of meeting students where they are at…. We make sure that our student's grad plan is solid and the follow through and support to make sure they're on track, to finishing off their grad plan and the way which has been set out,” he said.
School divisions track two grad rates for each cohort: a three-year grad rate and a five-year grad rate. Sask. The first tracks how many students have graduated three years after starting grade 10. The second tracks how many have graduated five years after starting Grade 10.
“The moment you take two credits in Grade 10 the clock starts,” Finch explained. “If you graduate in three years, that means you started in Grade 10, you went Grade 10, 11 and 12 and you graduate in that three-year window.”
“We also track our five-year graduate which means students that would have started in Grade 10 but had some bumps along the way, but eventually got to the end of what that looks like and they have the five-year grad rate.
Finch said that the improvement in the three-year rate was very good.
“So in that … data set, the non-FMI is from 87 to 90 and then our First Nations data went from 45 to 60,” Finch said.
Five-year graduation rates in Sask Rivers were 84 per cent, for non-FNMI were 96 per cent and for FNMI it was 73 per cent. In the province, the average for all students is 86 per cent, for non-FNMI was 95 per cent and for FNMI was 62 per cent.
In 2021-2022 the five-year graduation rates for Sask Rivers had an 82 per cent rate for all students, 95 per cent for non-FNMI and 68 per cent for FNMI.
The graduation rates were part of a larger Student Achievement Accountability Report by Superintendent Jennifer Hingley.
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