School District 43 continues to meet or beat the provincial average when it comes to graduating students.
The third largest school district with what what trustees have argued has one of the lowest per pupil funding rates in B.C. has maintained a relatively high graduation rate, according to BC Ministry of Education numbers.
In the school year ending June, 2014, for example, 95% of all eligible Grade 12s graduated, 61% with honors, and among the 2,579 students who started Grade 12 in September, 2013, 82% of them graduated in June.
Provincially, the grad rates are 94% for all eligible Grade 12s and 80% for Grade 12s who started in September and finished their graduating year in June.
SD43 also performed well for graduating students who take a little longer to finish high school. The six-year completion rate for 2013/14 was 91.9% for SD43 compared to 84.2% for the province.
[The six-year completion rates is the proportion of students who graduate within six years from the first time they enroll in Grade 8, adjusted for migration in and out of B.C.]
Overall in B.C., more students are graduating than ever before, including aboriginal and special needs students, according to the latest data on student completion.
In 2009/2010, the six-year completion rate for the entire province, public and independent schools combined was 79.7%, today it's 4.5% higher at 84.2%.
"I am very proud of our K-12 education system and our students' continuous achievement. They are ranked among the best in Canada and internationally for their reading and writing skills. Our latest six-year completion rates show that since 2001, there has been a continuous increase in the number of students graduating from high school every year, and I want to thank the parents and teachers for supporting our students along the way," stated Education Minister Peter Fassbender in a press release.
Locally, there has been marked improvements in the six-year graduation rates of aboriginal and special needs students, as well. In 2009/10, the six-year completion rate for aboriginal students was 63.9%, it is now 75.1% and for special needs students it was 71.5% five years ago, it is now 85.4%.
The new Suwa'lkh School in the former Millside elementary school in Coquitlam, which offers academic and elective courses that embed First Nations culture into the curriculum, has been credited with improved student achievement and success.
