Rocky View Schools has released the 2016-2017 Annual Education Results Report.

Superintendent Greg Luterbach explained that the annual report is required by the provincial government, and is a way to share with the public how the division is doing.

"[It's] a little bit of a year in review type report where we look at how our students are doing academically, what are they telling us - students, staff and parents - from satisfaction surveys that the government holds and a different one that Rocky View does, and we try to connect that all to our four year plan to give a report on how we're doing."

Luterbach presented the report to Rocky View's trustees at a school board meeting last Thursday (December 7), highlighting a number of key findings. Luterbach said a focus for Rocky View has been improving literacy, with three literacy learning specialists hired in September 2016. That effort is paying off, with an increase in the number of parents and teachers that believe students are demonstrating reading, writing and numeracy skills.

The annual dropout rate for Rocky View is also lower than the provincial average. The provincial drop-out rate is 3 percent, compared to Rocky View's rate of 2.3 percent. High school completion rates are also high, with 82.4 percent of Rocky View students completing high school within three years. That's slightly higher than the provincial number of 77.9 percent.

Another encouraging finding has to do with Rocky View's First Nation, Metis and Inuit (FNMI) population, which tends to do better in school than their provincial peers. Provincial Achievement Tests and Diploma results show that FNMI students are finding some success in Rocky View.

"What we're seeing is that those students are obviously being engaged. They're doing well. A challenge for us is, while they're doing better than other students that self-identify as First Nations, Metis and Inuit around our province, they're still not performing as high as our non-FNMI population."

Luterbach said a goal going forward will be closing that achievement gap, and they hope that there will be no difference between groups in the success of students.

With the report now available, Luterbach explained the division as a whole and individual schools can begin to address areas that need improvement.

"School have been meeting over the fall. They've looked at their school specific results and they are identifying, where are we doing well and where are areas that we continue to work on into the future. What we as a division do is we go and we meet with those principals and say, high fives on some things, what are the things that we need to work on?"

The report is now available for the public to read here.