Olds High School maintained its overall ranking in the Fraser Institute's annual measure of high schools throughout the province.
This year, as has been the case for the past five years, OHS was ranked 20th out of 279 schools in Alberta.
Tom Christensen, principal of OHS, said the school doesn't put much stock in any ranking system.
“We pretty much focus on our own world here. I look at the numbers (within the report) and we kind of say this is an area that we have to work at, but as far as rankings go, we really don't care – and I don't think our students really care too much about that. They just want to have a good education,” he said.
Christensen said only 3.6 per cent of students fail diploma exams at OHS – which in Christensen's opinion is an exceptionally good rate – compared to the provincial average of 16.5 per cent. That is due to teachers working more with students at OHS on an individual basis.
“That has made a big difference,” he said.
Christensen also pointed out the school has a high graduation rate of 88 per cent— the provincial average is about 74 per cent— and that score has been steadily climbing, although he added there is still room for improvement.
“But it concerns us still. That's like one out of every 10 students who isn't graduating (within) three years (of eligibility). They might go on and graduate after, but that's something we're always trying to work at,” he said, adding a 95 per cent rate would be a good rate to try and achieve.
Christensen said the identical gender scores in pure math 30 for 2012 and the 1.4 per cent higher rate for boys in English 30 scores is a credit to the school's staff.
Roughly 15 years ago, staff began focusing on getting more boys to take English 30 while also trying to raise the achievement level of girls in math, Christensen said.
“That's been a real conscious thing, trying to make it so that there's a more equitable distribution on that.”
OHS staff also try to prepare students as best they can for diploma exams by giving them rigorous school tests.
In 2012, there was a one per cent difference between the average test mark during the school year and the average final exam mark.
Peter Cowley, director of school performance studies for the Fraser Institute, said OHS has performed relatively well over the past five years, putting it in the top 10 per cent of schools.
Cowley said for those who use parental income as an indicator of student success, OHS bucks the trend.
With annual average income of $71,600 per family, Olds students do better than predicted since Olds students come from families with $14,900 less than the provincial average.
“It defies the common thought that somehow or other that the only schools that do well in the report card are (located in) rich neighbourhoods. They're certainly doing well relative to the other schools in the report,” he said.
