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Detailed school results

Getting the most out of the tables

The tables provide a great deal of information, all of which is worth attention. As a general rule, we recommend that all the statistics presented be considered. No one number--indicator data, the overall rating, or provincial ranking--can provide as much information as the whole set. Parents choosing a school will have to decide which, if any, of the measures of academic achievement is important to them. Then, the data may form the basis of questions that parents ask of teachers and administrators at the school. Similarly, during the process of improvement planning, the school community may consider each number in the same way: Is it important to us? Do we want to improve this aspect of our school's performance? If so, how can improvement be accomplished?

Look at the table at the bottom of this page. Information on the school and its students appears in the first part of the table. Joliette is a public school at which English is the language of instruction. It enrolled 201 students in the school year 1999/2000. We include the enrolment number to remind readers to exercise caution when considering the data for schools with relatively small enrollments. One would expect greater variation in the results of schools with smaller enrolments.

It is sometimes helpful to know something about the personal and family characteristics of the school's student body. They can be used to help identify other schools with similar student body characteristics with which to compare results. Characteristics of the student body can also be used to estimate the value added by the school. By estimating the extent to which student characteristics influence results, we can get a better picture of the effect that the school has on the success of its students. This year, the Report Card includes three measures of student characteristics. Of the students enrolled at Joliette in Secondary IV and Secondary V in 1999/2000, 4.6% are funded, special-needs students (EHDAA (%)). This proportion is only about one-half of the average for all schools in the Report Card. (The rating, EHDDA (%), shows the percentage of students at the school who have been assessed as having some kind of special need and for whom the school receives additional funding from the Ministry of Education. Under normal circumstances only public schools are eligible for this additional funding. That is why, in most cases, the EHDAA value for private schools is zero.)

On the other hand, 36.8% of the school's Secondary IV students were sixteen or older at the beginning of the year. This proportion of late-entry students is substantially higher than the all-schools average of 25.7%. The average employment income of the parents of students at the school is estimated at $33,400, well below the average for all the schools of $45,000.

Student characteristics are taken into account in the Adjustment for value added indicator. At Joliette, the adjustment factor is 1.3. This value implies that if there were no differences among schools in their students' individual and family characteristics, the 1999/2000 Overall rating out of 10 for Joliette would have been higher than its reported Overall rating of 7.2, by an amount equal to the adjustment factor of 1.3, or 8.5 out of 10.

Next in the tables are the indicators of school performance. Note that except for the Overall rating out of 10, all the results are expressed as a percentage. Where no results were produced or where small numbers of results were suppressed for privacy reasons, "nd" appears in the tables.

First, look at the statistics for the current school year 1999/2000 (labeled 2000). Referring to the table, Average for all schools, below, notice how the school's average examination marks compare to the all-schools average values. The examination results (Résultats aux épreuves) at Joliette exceed the all-schools average in second language and history but are lower than average in language of instruction and physical sciences. The school's examination failure rate (Échec) of 10.6% is three percentage points lower than average. These mixed results suggest that the school has potential to improve in those courses that lag behind the provincial average. The school was about average on the School level grade inflation (Surestimation par l'école) measurement. On the new Promotion rate (Taux de promotion) indicator, Joliette enjoyed a rate of success substantially higher than average. This indicates that there is a high probability that students entering Secondary IV at the school will stay in school and get their general program diploma on time. Finally, at Joliette, the gender gap in language of instruction courses is very low relative to average, while in physical sciences it is somewhat higher. Again, mixed results suggest that, even though in some subject areas, the school is very successful, other results can be improved. The Overall rating out of 10 (Joliette scored 7.2 in 1999/2000) takes into account the school's performance on all of the indicators discussed in this paragraph. The school's provincial academic ranking of 125th out of 463 (shown in the top right hand corner of the table) is based on this overall rating. The 2000 ranking is virtually the same as its average ranking for the period from 1996 to 2000. This indicates that the overall results at Joliette have been consistently strong over time. Directly below the provincial ranking is the school's rank in its district for the latest year and for the last five years. In general, the school is performing consistently well but its remarkable success in some areas suggests that improvement in the remaining areas is possible.

Now, what can we learn from the previous years statistics taken as a whole?

Trends were calculated for the average examination mark for all four courses combined, the failure rate, school level grade inflation indicator, the two gender gap indicators, and the Overall rating out of 10. Since only one year of Promotion rate data are available, trends for this indicator could not be calculated.

Improvement, if any, over the last six years for each indicator (except the Promotion rate) and the overall rating is noted with an upward pointing arrow (s) in the last column of the row. A downward pointing arrow (t) is used to note that the school is very likely experiencing deterioration in performance. The arrows are only used where a statistically significant trend is detected. In this context, the term "statistically significant" means that, nine times out of 10, the trend that is noted is real, that is, it would not have happened just by chance. Because the trends are based on standardized scores rather than the raw data in the table, changes outside of the school's control--like year-to-year variations in the difficulty of the examinations--have been taken into account. Where a dash appears, no significant change has occurred over the reported period. Where trends were not calculated due to lack of sufficient data, "nd" appears.

In the Joliette High School results table, the Trends indicator shows that, relative to other schools in the province, Joliette is holding its own over time. It is neither improving nor deteriorating.

In three instances--Average exam marks, Promotion rate, and Overall rating out of 10--an upward pointing arrow (s) will accompany increasing values in the statistics. For example, increasing average mark values indicate improvement. For the other four indicators--Fail rate, School level grade inflation, and the two gender-gap indicators, an upward pointing arrow will accompany decreasing values in the statistics. For example, a decreasing rate of failure also indicates improvement.

Overall, the school community at Joliette should be pleased by the school's steady, above-average performance over the last five years especially in light of the relatively challenging personal and family backgrounds of the students. However, the outstanding results in certain of the indicators suggest that, by executing a well thought out plan for improvement, the school can do even better.

Not all the province's high schools are included in the tables or the ranking. Excluded are schools at which fewer than 15 students were enrolled in Secondary V. For privacy reasons, the Ministry of Education may suppress results generated by very small schools. Thus, there is often not sufficient data available to allow a complete analysis and presentation of the results for these schools.

Also excluded from the ratings and rankings are adult education centres; continuing education facilities; schools that cater largely to non-resident foreign students; schools for which insufficient data is available, and certain alternative schools.

The exclusion of a school from the Report Card should in no way be construed as a judgement of the school's effectiveness.

Where there were insufficient data available with which to calculate an indicator or where a school was not in operation during a specific year, "nd" appears in the tables.

You can compare a school's results with these average results for all the schools in the Report Card in table, Average for all schools, below

The tables showing the detailed results for the schools will be found in the French version of this study: Bulletin des écoles secondaires du Québec : Édition 2001.

Table 1

Table 2

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Last Modified: October 20, 2000.