Province aims to boost high school completion rates
$4.2 million will help school boards target barriers to graduation
Edmonton... Keeping students engaged, supported and motivated to stay in school is the goal of a $4.2-million investment by the Alberta government to support school jurisdictions as they work to increase high school completion rates.
“Finishing high school is an important step for young people to create a positive future for themselves, their families, and their communities,” said Minister of Education Dave Hancock. “It is also vital to ensuring they have the skills and knowledge to fully participate in the community and the economy, now and in the future.”
Under the province’s High School Completion Framework, Alberta Education will work with school jurisdictions to identify the barriers to graduation and develop plans that enhance existing programs and fit the needs of the school community. Each public, separate and Francophone school jurisdiction will receive one-time funding of $55,000 plus $5 per student enrolled in Grades 10-12. This funding will help jurisdictions develop plans to address the short term needs of schools and identify the long-term systematic changes necessary to improve high school completion rates.
The High School Completion Framework includes five strategies: personalized learning, successful transitions, collaborative partnerships, positive connections and tracking progress. Programs and initiatives under the framework include mentorship programs, career preparation support, enhanced distance and off-campus learning, and increased counselling support in schools. The framework provides a focused approach to helping students complete high school by clearly outlining the various initiatives that support completion and identifying potential gaps in programming.
“Our approach to increasing high school completion is based on collaboration,” said Hancock. “The solutions lie at the local level and by supporting those efforts, as well as ensuring we have the tools and supports needed at the provincial level, we’ll make a difference one student at a time.”
Currently, Alberta’s five-year high school completion rate sits at 79.5 per cent. The province has a goal of increasing that to 82 per cent by 2012. More information on the Alberta High School Completion Framework can be found at www.education.alberta.ca/highschoolcompletion.
Backgrounder
High School Completion Framework
The framework includes five strategies:
-
Focusing on personalized learning will see the development of more responsive approaches to addressing individual student’s abilities and interests. This includes more opportunities for distance learning, infusing culture or language into courses, and providing more flexible programming.
-
Ensuring successful transitions means making school more relevant to students by improving linkages between school and work, and improving grade-to-grade and school-to-school transitions. The strategy will examine and build on some of the best practices currently working in schools and share those practices across the province.
-
Building collaborative partnerships will focus on increasing cooperation amongst various agencies and schools to develop an effective approach to the delivery of wrap-around services. From bullying to student mental health, the strategy will look at ways schools, social service agencies and government can work together to support families and students and keep youth in school.
-
Creating positive connections will help students become more positively engaged with the education system. Studies show that a positive mentoring relationship may make the difference for a student at risk of leaving school. Through supporting initiatives such as the Alberta Mentorship Partnership, the strategy will increase mentoring opportunities for youth.
-
Tracking progress will see better collection and use of data, including that of students entering into post-secondary, to better understand the barriers to completion and identify strategies that are working effectively to keep students in school.
