NLIS 2
July 21, 2003
(Education)

 

High school results yield a total pass rate of 89 per cent

Results for senior high school students were announced today, and students achieved an overall pass rate of 89 per cent in their courses. For public exam courses, the pass rate was 85 per cent, up from 84 per cent in 2001-02.

"A total of 23,394 senior high students, including levels I, II and III, were evaluated on their school work this year. Final results are based on an evaluation of all course work completed throughout the school year, including results of public examinations for shared evaluation courses," said Minister Reid. "This year, we administered eleven public examinations and I am pleased to say that we saw an overall improvement in our students� performance over last year in the majority of courses."

Percentage pass rates for the public examinations that were administered are as follows: Thematic Literature 3201 - 78%; Academic Mathematics 3204 - 71%; Advanced Math 3205 - 91%; Biology 3201 - 89%; Chemistry 3202 - 90%; Physics 3204 - 88%; Earth Systems 3209 - 71%; World History 3201 - 86%; World Geography 3202 - 93%; French 3200 - 96%; and the French version of the World History exam (Histoire mondiale 3231) - 90%.

"I am particularly pleased with the results from the earth systems and biology courses, which show significant improvement over last year," added Minister Reid. "There were also performance gains in French, chemistry, physics, history and the French world history courses. The goal of all educators and our government is to produce a learning environment where students can improve their levels of achievement, and we have been making progress in this regard."

Over the past number of years, the Department of Education has endeavoured to improve student achievement through new curricula, a strong provincial assessment program, including criterion referenced testing at grades three, six, and nine, and an intensive in-service program for teachers. This year�s senior high results demonstrate that improvements are being realized.

"Providing a high quality education and regularly assessing performance are the most important things we can do for our children if they are to compete and succeed in our global community," said Minister Reid. "We can only achieve this by setting high standards and presenting our students with a challenging, quality curriculum. A measure of our success is our post-secondary participation rate, which is one of the highest in the country."

Students who did not attain adequate grades to graduate or to proceed to post-secondary institutions this fall will have the opportunity to write supplementary exams. Two courses, Thematic Literature 3201 and Mathematics 3204, are prerequisites for many educational institutions. "Traditionally, supplementary exams for these two courses are offered in November along with supplementary examinations for other high school public examination courses. This year, for the first time, we will be offering supplementary exams in these two courses in August. This will give students another opportunity to pass or improve their marks in these subject areas in time for September admission into post-secondary institutions," said Minister Reid. The supplementary exams will be administered on August 22, 2003, at a number of centres around the province. Students requiring more information on the August supplementary examinations may visit the department�s Web site at www.gov.nl.ca/edu/pub/public.htm. Students may also access previously administered public exams as practice on this Web site.

In order to prepare students for supplementary exams, the department will be offering free on-line tutoring for Math 3204, through the Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation. An on-line tutor will be available from Wednesday, July 16, 2003, until Thursday, August 21, 2003. Available times are weekdays, Monday to Thursday, from 7:00-10:00 p.m. and on Saturdays from 2:00-5:00 p.m. Students may log on at www.cdli.ca to avail of this service.

Public exams are developed by teachers who review the curriculum for each course, create exam specifications and develop the questions for the exams. A panel of teachers then mark the exams for each course. Official transcripts are being mailed to students on July 22, 2003, and summaries of the results are being forwarded to schools and school districts. Meetings will be held with principals and program staff at school district offices early in the new school year to review the results and to use the detailed information on subject area performance to improve student achievement.

Media contact: Elizabeth Matthews, Communications, (709) 729-0048 or (709) 727-3438

Average Percentage Passes
For Shared High School Evaluation Courses
For 2002/2003 School Year

Percentage of Passes

Subject/Course

# of Students 2003 2002
Thematic Literature 3201 2,793 78 80
French 3200 1,164 96 95
Academic Math 3204 4,361 71 72
Advanced Math 3205 1,455 91 94
Biology 3201 3,189 89 82
Chemistry 3202 1,407 90 88
Physics 3204 1,309 88 86
Earth Systems 3209 465 71 65
World History 3201 1,214 86 84
Histoire Mondiale 3231 289 90 87
World Geography 3202 3,244 93 95

2003 07 21                                    11:50 a.m.


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