Thu Oct 14 2010

Sean Myers
Calgary Herald

A system-wide analysis is needed to determine why the critical thinking skills of Grade 12 students, as
tested on the English language arts diploma exam, have been steadily declining for five years,
according to the Calgary Board of Education.

Both the public and Catholic school boards were part of a provincewide trend in declining achievement on
the English 30-1 final exam last year.

The local boards released their provincial achievement test results Wednesday showing
improvements in most areas, including dropout rates and high school completion.

Students in both the public and separate systems beat the provincial average in the majority of categories.

Thirty-eight per cent of CBE students who wrote the Physics 30 diploma exam scored 80 per cent or
better. Just 29 per cent of their Alberta counterparts reached that same level.

But both Calgary boards said Wednesday they had declines in the English 30-1 diploma exam.

Alberta Education Minister Dave Hancock expressed concern this week over deteriorating critical thinking
skills.

At the CBE, the number of students meeting the acceptable standard of 50 per cent or better was 82.6
per cent -- slightly below the provincial average, which was 85.1.

"These are complex issues and cannot be resolved with simple tinkering," said Cathy Faber,
superintendent of learning innovation at the CBE.

Hancock suggested one reason for the decline could be a high number of teachers who have retired
recently, but both the public and Catholic boards rejected that.

Faber said critical thinking skills cross all subject areas and should be developing long before Grade
12. She said the board will search for ways to improve the results across the system.

In the Catholic school district, officials suggested the test itself may be to blame.

"In English, there are such a broad perspective of topics that are focused on in that curriculum. To be
able to test upon the broad range of those topics within one exam can be challenging," said Mike
Ross, director of instructional services for secondary education for the Catholic district. "That may be
attributed in some of these results."

The English 30-1 exam is worth 50 per cent of the total grade in the course and is used as a prerequisite
for university acceptance.