The Province released diploma exam results for schools across Alberta last week and the local Foothills School Division showed some improvement in some areas and struggles in others.

Assistant Superintendent of Learning Services Pam Rannelli says they use the results as just one tool to determine where changes might be needed.

"The beauty of these, both the PAT's (Provincial Achievement tests) and the Diploma exams is that you can drill down and see, 'ok, what areas of the curriculum did the kids struggle with, what types of questions did they struggle with, does that inform how we might instruct that piece next time, or next semester," Rannelli says. "Remember these are also a snap shot in time so sometime's it's a case of the kid maybe had struggled a bit with test taking skills, so we look at all those dynamics."

She says there are some areas that need attention.

"Math is one that we definitely know we have to put more focus on," she says. "We're getting to the level of acceptable in some of our grades, grade nine was certainly better this year,  but that standard of excellence is one that we need to improve and work on."

She says another area is science where some areas have improved but not enough students have attained the standard of excellence.

Rannelli says the hard work in paying off but it's work that has to continue.

School officials look at this data along with assessments that teachers have done in schools and other benchmark data as well as literacy and numeracy data to see where early intervention or other area of assistance can be used to help students learn.

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