Acountability Pillar

How the Accountability Pillar works

The Accountability Pillar collects data on student achievement from Provincial Achievement Tests and Diploma Exams, and information on perceived quality of education using survey data from students, parents, and teachers (conducted between January and March each year). It also uses additional student outcome data such as drop out rates, high school completion rates and the number of students eligible to receive Rutherford Scholarships.

Accountability Pillar measures are combined into seven categories, which track a jurisdiction's progress towards reaching their education goals. Each category consists of measures evaluated both individually and as a group on both achievement (comparison against fixed provincial standards) and improvement (comparison against previous performance). An overall evaluation for each measure and each category is made by combining both the achievement and improvement results.

Category How Success is Measured
Safe and caring schools
  • Using a survey to determine the percentage of teacher, parent and student agreement that: students are safe at school, are learning the importance of caring for others, are learning respect for other and are treated fairly at school.
Student learning opportunities
  • Annual drop-out rates
  • Annual high school completion rates
  • Using surveys to determine:
    • Percentage of teachers, parents and students satisfied with the opportunity for students to receive a broad program of studies, including fine arts, career, technology, and health and physical education.
    • Percentage of teachers, parents and students satisfied with the overall quality of basic education.
Student learning achievement (Grades K to 9)
  • Provincial achievement tests acceptable standard
  • Provincial achievement tests standard of excellence
Student learning achievement (Grades 10 to 12)
  • Diploma exams acceptable standard
  • Diploma exams standard of excellence
  • Rutherford scholarship eligibility
  • Diploma exam participation
Preparing for lifelong learning,
  • Annual high school to post-secondary transition rate
world of work, and citizenship
  • Using surveys to determine:
    • Percentage of teachers and parents who agree that students are taught the attitudes and behaviors that will make them successful at work when they finish school.
    • Percentage of teachers, parents and students who are satisfied that students model the characteristics of active citizenship.
Parental involvement
  • Using a survey to determine the percentage of teachers and parents satisfied with parental involvement in decisions about their child's education.
Continuous improvement
  • Using a survey to determine the percentage of teachers and parents indicating that their school and schools in their jurisdiction have improved or stayed the same in the last three years.

Taken together, this information demonstrates how well each district is doing in realizing expected outcomes and which areas require additional work. It also allows school boards to assess their achievement compared to provincial standards, and to see how they have improved compared to their previous performance.

Alberta school jurisdictions receive a new year of results and evaluations from Alberta Education each year — in May for survey measures and measures derived from information in Ministry data systems, which is updated in October with the provincial achievement test and diploma examination measures.