There are ways to measure how well students in the NWT are performing at a specific grade level, standardized testing among them. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE) used the Alberta Achievement Tests (AAT) as the main measuring stick.
But do we know how well adults are doing? Apparently, that hasn't been done and ECE doesn't have those numbers.
Yellowknife North MLA Shauna Morgan wants to know why.
Morgan put the question to ECE Minister Caitlin Cleveland during the May 23 sitting of the legislative assembly, wondering if there was any data to show the functional literacy of adults in the NWT. When Cleveland told Morgan there was no data, Morgan wondered if the department would start doing so by means of a survey.
Cleveland responded by saying that there were two surveys done: the first was in 2012 called International Assessment of Adult Competencies Literacy Survey, followed by another one in 2022.
"Unfortunately, at that time, it was identified that it would cost around $5 million for the territories across Canada to participate in that survey," said Cleveland. "So the three territories did not participate in the survey. Currently, CMEC (Council of Education Ministers Canada), along with Statistics Canada and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the three territories, are looking at other options to obtain this data, including the use of potentially an online version of this testing."
Morgan then extended that into how youth are doing.
"Does ECE monitor literacy levels among any or all of the grade levels to track trends over time to see if it's getting better or worse?," she said.
Cleveland said the AAT was the main source of tracking how well students were doing in school when they were introduced in the mid-2000s, but there was little improvement over time based on the data that was being received.
That was one reason why the GNWT decided to switch to the B.C. curriculum.
"With our transition to B.C., we will eventually have the B.C. foundational skills assessments across Grades 4 and 7 and graduation assessments across Grade 10 and 12, which will assess student achievement and literacy and numeracy as well," she said. "So one of the things that I think is important here is our Alberta Achievement Testing data trends showed little change over time and that contributed to our decision as well to switch to the B.C. curriculum."
Grades 4 through 6 as well as Grade 9 classes within the Grade 9-12 cohort (high school) were the first ones to begin using the B.C. curriculum as part of lesson plans this school year under a trial implementation. The trial meant schools had the choice to try one, some, or all subject areas of the draft curriculum. Those grades will move into a draft curriculum next year. Grades 7 and 8 will enter the trial curriculum phase next school year along with those Grade 9 classes that are part of the Grade 7-9 cohort.
Grade 10 classes will be the first ones to work under the new set of graduation requirements as laid out by ECE.