Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today I talked about the importance of reading and the tremendous efforts of the teachers in the South Slave and the South Slave Divisional Education Council. I’d like to know more about the literacy programs. I have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Can the Minister tell me about the change in reading levels of the students between when the program was started and now?
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
I, too, truly enjoyed the tour of the South Slave with the Member. I believe it was a real successful South Slave tour. I can certainly highlight some of the key initiatives that have been undertaken since 2006.
Just over 50 percent of the South Slave students met or exceeded the standards of the Alberta Achievement Tests for grades 3, 6, and 9 after the second year, for the South Slave students reading at or above the Canadian norm this year, 2009. We are making a huge improvement in this area. In 2008-2009, South Slave students were at 71 percent, at or above the Canadian average. Also, 2009 South Slave students are reading above the average superior to 20 percent comparison to Canadian peers. We’re making progress in this area and are very proud of that.
That’s good news to hear that the students are achieving positively. I’m wondering if those results are for all of the students or are those results tied only to those students who are attending school a certain percentage of the time. I’m curious if it’s... I think I heard that it might have been that students are rated once they are attending more than 90 percent of the time and those are the only students being compared. Or is it everyone that’s in school whether they’re attending only 50 percent of the time or not? I’m wondering if those results are tied to absenteeism as well.
The information that was given to me was based on the number of students in the South Slave region that are currently in school since 2006. It was based on the number of students that were in school at that time that took the Alberta Achievement Tests in grades 3, 6, and 9. It covers a broad sector of the students in the South Slave region.
Can the Minister tell me what the program cost for this is? Is this an extra cost? What is the cost above the standard cost of education? This is a new program introduced in 2007. Did it cost more? Is there a plan to continue the program?
This particular program is quite unique and the cost factor itself is approximately $800,000 to operate. It does consist of classroom and library resources, mostly level books. They are the key to success literacy program and make it possible for teachers and students to track their reading achievement progress. Those are the specific areas, $800,000, which also covers the literacy coaches in those communities.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I’m not aware if this Leadership for Literacy is fully implemented in the communities that I represent. If they are fully implemented, good. If they’re not fully implemented, because I know, for example, there is no library in the school in Lutselk’e, I’m wondering if the department is looking at a full implementation in all of the schools in the South Slave.
Mr. Speaker, when we toured the schools in the South Slave region, we did tour Fort Resolution as well. At the same time, we were told by the education council in the South Slave district that all schools, I believe there were eight schools that had one literacy coaching in the schools that as a pilot project that they were doing since 2006. Mr. Speaker, we are looking at that model and we want to deliver that in other jurisdictions as well. It’s a very successful project and we’re very proud of it. We’re continuing with the program this year using our internal resources, and next year it will be part of the business planning cycle on a going forward basis. We feel that this is an important factor in our education system. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
