At its regular meeting held February 14th, the Board of Trustees of District School Board Ontario North East received a report on student credit accumulation and progress toward 5 year graduation.

Due to the efforts of staff, students and parents, there has been an increase in credit accumulation, and the 5 year graduation rate is expected to increase to approximately 67% this Spring.

Research on the current graduation cohort shows that 307 students who entered Grade 9 with the Board will graduate in 4 years and 448 students will graduate with 5 years attendance at secondary schools. Research also shows that 133 students who entered Grade 9 in DSB ONE secondary schools would be considered by the Ministry of Education to be “early leavers”. This would include students who completed their secondary school education through Ontario Secondary School Certificates or with Certificates of Achievement.

A total of 42 students dropped out and 17 students left the Province and could not be tracked.

“The Board of Trustees commends our staff for stepping up the focus on credit accumulation,” commented Board Chair Doug Shearer. “We know that more effort is being made to communicate with parents when students fail to attend class. There has been a lot of positive feedback from parents who appreciate knowing when their young people are skipping school.”

The Board remains challenged in its ability to provide full programming in the Province-wide atmosphere of declining enrolment.

“Our students are making good use of e-Learning opportunities to meet their needs,” said Shearer. “Last year, 380 e-Learning courses were taken with a 93% success rate. During the Fall semester, students took 179 courses, with a 91.6% success rate.”

“Over the past months, the increased focus by staff on attendance and communication with parents has been paying dividends”, added Shearer.

Filed under: Local News