The Christ the Redeemer School Division is celebrating the success of its students on diploma exams and Provincial Achievement Tests.

Superintendent Scott Morrison says students in Grades 6 and 9 achieved excellent and acceptable rates higher than the provincial average.

"Our math is always surprisingly strong and that's one of the ones that the curriculum changed several years ago so they don't give you an actually rating but we're generally ten per cent above the province on both the pass rates and the acceptable rates on all exams related to math, so I think excellence in math is a real strong suit," Morrison says. "English language arts, because of our focus on literacy is also a strength for us."

He says  there are a couple of reasons students did well.

One is that students being educated online and at home have really increased participation rates in writing the exams and if they don't write them they're counted as a zero. Morrison says they've been communicating with parents about what they can learn about their kids learning if they write those exams.

He says the other thing is that there's been incredible performance in both elementary schools in High River and Brooks.

"Those two schools, with high English learner populations are just improving on a yearly basis and of course the Okotoks schools are always in the top five per cent of the province," he says.

Parental involvement has always been a big part of the Catholic school division and Morrison says that continues and contributes to better results.

 

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