Public Policy Sources 29:
A Measure of Academic Performance for High Schools

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We base our overall rating of each school's academic performance on five indicators:

1. Average diploma examination mark
2. Percentage of diploma examinations failed
3. Difference between examination mark
   and school mark
4. Diploma courses taken per student
5. Diploma completion rate

We have selected this set of indicators because they provide systematic insight into a school's performance. They are based on annually generated data so that we can assess not only each school's performance in a single year but also its improvement or deterioration from year to year. All the data used are provided by Alberta Education.

To make the indicators as transparent as possible, we have kept manipulation of the data from Alberta Education to the minimum required. The process by which the five indicators are developed involves no significant editing of the raw data. Thus, parents, administrators, teachers, and other interested parties may replicate our measures with a minimum of effort.

Three Indicators of
Effective Teaching

1 Average Diploma Examination Mark

This indicator is the average mark (a percentage) achieved by a school's Grade-12 students on the uniform final examinations in all of the diploma courses. For each school, the indicator is the average of the mean scores achieved by the school's Grade-12 students in each of the diploma examinations at all sittings during the year, weighted by the relative number of students who completed the corresponding course.

Examinations are designed to achieve a distribution of results reflecting the inevitable differences in students' mastery of the course work. Differences among students in interests, abilities, motivation, and work habits will inevitably have some impact upon the final results. However, there are recognizable differences from school to school within a district in the average results on the diploma examinations. There is also variation within schools in the results obtained in different subject areas. Such differences in outcomes cannot be explained solely by the characteristics of the student body. It seems reasonable, therefore, to include the average examination mark for each school as an indicator of effective teaching.

2 Percentage of Diploma
Examinations Failed

For each school, this indicator provides the rate of failure (as a percentage) in the diploma examinations. It was derived by dividing the sum, for each school, of all diploma course completions by Grade-12 students where a failing examination grade was awarded by the total number of such course completions by the Grade-12 students of that school.

In part, effective teaching can be measured by the ability of the students to pass any uniform examination that is a requirement for successful completion of a course. Schools have the responsibility of preparing their students to pass these final examinations.

There is good reason to have confidence in this indicator as a measure of effective teaching. A student need only successfully complete two diploma courses--one in language arts and the other in social studies--in order to receive a high-school diploma. Such a student's course of study may not include the prerequisites for all post-secondary educational options but it will be sufficient for graduation from high school. Thus, students enrol in the diploma courses, in large measure, because they want to take them. Further, the rate of failure reflects how well students have been prepared in the lower grades since all ten diploma courses have prerequisite courses in the same subject. Indeed, admission to the Grade-12 course very often requires that the student have received a prescribed minimum grade in the required lower-level course. Since the decision to take diploma courses is, for the most part, voluntary and requires demonstrated success in previous courses, it seems reasonable to use the percentage of examinations failed in these courses to judge the effectiveness of the teaching in high schools.

3 Difference between Examination Mark
and School Mark

For each school, this indicator gives the average of the absolute value of the difference between the average mark obtained on the diploma course examinations and the average "school" mark. The school mark reflects the accumulation of all the results from tests, essays, quizzes, and so on given in class for all the diploma courses, while the examination mark reflects performance on the province-wide examination on the curriculum.

It is an integral component of teaching to regularly test students' knowledge in order to provide feedback so that they may be aware of their progress. For such assessment to be useful, it must accurately reflect the student's understanding of the course material and inflation of grades, as a systematic policy, will be counterproductive. Students who believe they are already successful when they are not will be less likely to invest the extra effort needed to master the course material. In the end, they will be poorer for not having achieved the level of understanding that they could have achieved through additional study. The systematic deflation of grades can work to the detriment of students by discouraging true success. It can also place students at a disadvantage when they apply for admission to post-secondary programs and scholarship awards, both of which are often based on school assessments.

The effectiveness of school-based assessments can be determined by their comparison to external assessments of the students. The same authority--Alberta Education--that designed the course administers the diploma examination. This examination will test whether students have learned the material for which the course was designed. If the marks assigned by the school are a reasonably accurate reflection of students' understanding, they should be roughly the same as the mark gained on the diploma examination. Thus, if a school has accurately assessed a student as consistently working at a C+ level, the student's examination result will be at a similar level. If, however, a school is consistently granting marks substantially different than those achieved by its students on the final examinations, then the school is not providing an accurate indicator of the extent to which the knowledge of the course material is being acquired.

Two Indicators of Practical,
Well-informed Counselling

During the high school years, students must make a number of decisions of considerable significance about their education. They will, for instance, annually decide whether to begin or continue learning a second language. In grade 10, they are required to choose between different streams in Mathematics, Social Studies, English, and Science. A year or two later, they may face the choice of completing high school or abandoning it in favour of full-time work.

Will these young students make good decisions? It is unrealistic to presume that they can do so without advice. What practical, well-informed counselling can they call upon? While parents are willing to help, some lack the information they need to be able to provide good advice. It falls, therefore, to the schools to shoulder part of the responsibility for advising students and their parents about the former's educational choices.

By measuring the quality of the decisions taken by the students about their education, the final two indicators assess the counsel given by the schools. Of course, astute students will seek guidance not only from the counsellors designated by the schools but also from teachers and administrators, parents and other relatives. Where students have strong support from family and community, the school's responsibility for counselling may be lighter; where students do not have such strong support, the school's role may be more challenging. These indicators measure the school's success in using the tools at its disposal to help students make good decisions about their education.

There are two very important decisions that senior students must make. First, they must decide whether or not to take a number of academically challenging diploma courses. Second, having made it through school to the end of September in Grade 12, they must decide whether to stick it out, do the work, and obtain their diploma with their class by finishing the year.

A decision in the negative would be comfortable for a student, especially one who lacks the kind of support that we are trying to measure. Students can quite easily rationalise taking less rigorous courses in Grade 12 on the basis that these courses more closely parallel their present interests. Likewise, there are all sorts of reasons that can be advanced for deferring the diploma: "The few courses I need can be picked up later." "I'm going to fail anyway, so why try?" "There's a job that pays $15.82 an hour available right now, so I can't afford to stay in school." The list is conveniently long. The decisions to be measured have been chosen because students without well-informed counsel may well give the more comfortable, negative answers.

1 Diploma Courses Taken per Student

This indicator measures the average number of diploma courses completed by the students at a school. It is derived by summing the participation rates for all the diploma courses taken at each school. The participation rate sums the diploma-course completions at the school in a year by students entering Grade-12 for the first time and then divides the sum by the Grade-11 enrolment in the previous year. 5

In their senior years, students have freedom to choose from a considerable variety of courses. Their choices will have an impact upon their literacy, numeracy, and analytical skills upon graduation and affect the variety of post-secondary options open to them. Diploma courses offer study at the senior level in a variety of core disciplines: English language, the sciences, mathematics, and social studies. Course offerings in each area include alternatives that reflect the post-secondary ambitions of different groups of students. Far from being courses only for a university-bound elite, these courses teach skills and knowledge that will benefit students no matter what they plan to do after graduation. Further, it is the marks obtained in these courses that are commonly used by post-secondary institutions--institutes of technology and community colleges as well as universities--to assess the applicant's readiness for further study and for admission to programs with limited enrolment. Thus, for most students a decision to take advantage of these courses is a good one and a school that is successful in encouraging students to take these courses shows that it offers practical, well-informed, counselling.

2 Diploma Completion Rate

This indicator is calculated as follows. We determine the number of students at the school enrolled for the first time in Grade 12 who receive a diploma in the same school year. This number is expressed as a percentage of the total number of students at the school enrolled in Grade 12 for the first time.

Obtaining a high school diploma retains considerable value since it increases options for post-secondary education. Further, graduates from high school who decide to enter the work-force immediately will, on average, find more job opportunities than those who have not graduated.

By completing the eleven years of schooling in preparation for the final senior high school year, students have already demonstrated a reasonable ability to handle the basic courses offered by the school. Moreover, for the majority of students, the minimum requirements for graduation are not particularly onerous. The chance that students will not graduate solely because they are unable to meet the intellectual demands of the curriculum is, therefore, relatively small.

Nevertheless, the graduation rate varies quite widely from school to school throughout the province. While there are factors not related to education--emigration from the province, sickness, death, and the like--that can affect the data, there is no reason to expect these factors to influence particular schools systematically. Accordingly, we take variations in the graduation rate to be an indicator of the extent to which students are being well coached in their educational choices.

Overall Rating Out of 10

While each of the indicators is important, it is very often the case that a particular school does better on some indicators than on others. So, just as a teacher must make a decision about students' overall performance, we need an overall indicator of school performance. Just as teachers combine test scores, homework, and class participation to rate a student, we combine all the indicators to produce an overall school rating. The overall rating of school performance answers the question, "In general, how is the school doing, academically?"

To derive this rating, the results for all the years were converted into a score out of 10 using the following procedure. For each indicator, the results for the base-year (1995/1996) were sorted from highest to lowest. They were then divided into 10 ranges and each range was assigned a score between 10 and 1. The range that included the top 10 percent of results was given a 10; the next range, a 9; and so on. The results from each additional year were then assigned the number score corresponding to the range of values established in the base-year into which each fell. The number scores for the five indicators were then averaged to produce the annual overall rating for each school. The decile range tables for each of the indicators can be found in the Appendix (page 58).

1. Diploma courses are those Grade-12 courses, successful completion of which requires the student to write a uniform provincial final examination. At present, there are 11 such courses: Biology 30, Chemistry 30, English 30, English 33, Français 30 (for francophone students only), Mathematics 30, Mathematics 33, Physics 30, Science 30, Social Studies 30, and Social Studies 33. The term "diploma examination" refers to the uniform provincial examination in a diploma course.

2. Upon successful completion of a high-school program, students in Alberta are awarded either an Alberta High School Diploma or a Certificate of Achievement--Integrated Occupational Program. This report card is based on student achievement in the Diploma program.

3. Emery Dosdall. Our Mission. Digital document: epsb.edmonton.ab.ca/parents/mission.shtml (May 3, 1999). Edmonton Public School Board.

4. High School Directory. Digital document: cbe.ab.ca/publications/highschs.pdf (May 3, 1999). Calgary Board of Education.

5. At present, Alberta Education provides participation rates based on three different statistics: Grade-12 enrolment, the previous year's Grade-11 enrolment, and completions of Grade-12 English. For measuring the degree to which a school's students participate in diploma courses, one of these rates may be better than the other two. However, Alberta Education may adopt a single participation rate for future reporting and it appears that the rate based on the previous year's Grade-11 enrolment most closely approximates the proposed participation rate. In order to maximize comparability between this and future editions of the Report Card, we have chosen to use the rate based on the previous year's Grade-11 enrolment.

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Last Modified: Tuesday, June 8, 1999.