Jasper Senior High School has a graduation rate 21 per cent higher than the provincial average for 2008/09, with 91 per cent of students completing their diploma in three years.

According to Grande Yellowhead Public School Division’s assistant superintendent Nancy Spencer-Poitras, this means Jasper has the highest graduation rate in the division.

“21 per cent, that is huge,” she said, noting that she would be meeting with principal Mark Crozier to learn about best practices from the school.

Crozier said he was thrilled with the results. “We had a banner year in terms of our academics,” he said, noting that the school beat the provincial averages in a variety of other areas as well.

He accredited the students’ success to dedicated staff, and an overall caring community – citing the relationship between students themselves, who often attend school from kindergarten to Grade 12 together, and teacher-student relationships.

He also said that the intimate size of the school meant the staff, including himself, the vice-principal and counsellor, could work with students that may need help re-focusing or being motivated throughout their senior schooling.

“That’s the benefit for a small school” he said. “It’s like a family, so everyone is understanding and supporting... the peer group of students, they support each other and help each other.”

Spencer-Poitras said that a variety of factors resulted in the high completion rate, including the fact Jasper is a small high school. As a small school, it’s easier for staff to ensure students have all the courses required by Alberta Education to graduate.

“The fact it is a small high school means (it’s possible) to build those relationships... to keep a close eye on kids, and it’s easier to follow through with the students.”

She also suggested that the community’s culture of completion and support from parents meant expectations were placed on students to graduate and gain further education.

“Basically the school has, and the community has, a culture of completion. So with the support from the parents... and the community has the expectation that you will go to post-secondary education,” she said.

While Crozier agreed there was an emphasis on completion, he noted that the school provided a variety of programs, including shop and food programs so that students would find an easy transition from high school into further education, but not necessarily tertiary education.

Due to the high graduation rate, which has increased from 87 per cent in 2007/08, the school is given the highest rating, for significant improvement, within the accountability pillar of Alberta Education.

Carolyn Stuparky, spokesperson for Alberta Education, explains the accountability pillar uses 16 key indicators to keep track of Alberta school boards. These indicators include, high school completion rate, education quality, parental involvement and more.

“Blue means improved significantly and what that means is they’ve gone up,” she said noting that the rating was simply comparing previous graduation rates from the same school.

While Alberta Education does not compare one school to others, the province’s three year completion rate dropped by 0.3 per cent from 71 per cent in 2007/08, to 70.7 per cent in 2008/09.

Due to this small drop, the province received a yellow coding, for acceptable high school completion rates.