CONTEXT STATEMENT Social Context

Yukon has a total land area of 483,450 km2 and a population of 30,766. The population of Whitehorse, the capital city, is 21,065, and the remaining population is divided among the 9 rural communities.

Organization of the School System

There are 28 schools with a total enrolment from kindergarten to grade 12 of 6,086. Half the schools are designated as rural schools. These typically have low student populations, several multi-level classes, and low pupil-teacher ratios. Many rural schools do not offer grades 11 and 12 and may have fewer optional programs offered in the secondary grades.

Unlike most jurisdictions in Canada, there are no school taxes in Yukon, and there is only one school board, that being for École Émilie-Tremblay, the territory’s only French school. School superintendents work for the Department of Education, which is responsible for most aspects of school operations. Almost every school has a school council, a body which has some but not all the powers of a school board, including the responsibility for schools rules, school plans, and dispute resolution, to name a few.

Yukon follows the British Columbia curriculum in all subject areas. This curriculum is sometimes modified — with departmental approval — to reflect local needs and conditions. As well, up to 20% of a student’s educational program may be locally developed. Schools are organized into two segments: elementary (K to 7) and secondary (8 to 12). There are three Catholic schools within the Yukon public school system. Instructional time allotments for each subject vary in the elementary grades but are standardized to 120 hours per course for grades 8 to 12.

Approximately 25% of Yukon students are of First Nations Ancestry. These students often participate in Native language programs and/or in various locally developed courses aimed at developing awareness, appreciation, and knowledge of First Nations culture and traditions. The remainder of the student population is predominantly of European or British ancestry. Approximately 7% of Yukon students are enrolled in a French Immersion program, while nearly 1.8% attend French school.

Language Arts Teaching

The Yukon curriculum for language arts is based on the integrated resource packages produced by British Columbia. From kindergarten to grade 12, curriculum is organized into three learning outcomes: to com-prehend and respond, to communicate information and ideas, and to understand self and society. Students are required to communicate their ideas through print and non-print media and to think and respond critically to information and literature.

Reading performance in Yukon shows no significant difference from the English Canadian performance at levels 1, 2, and 5 for 13-year-olds. Levels 3 and 4 do have differences. For 16 year-olds, there is no difference in reading performance for levels 1 and 5, while differences exist at levels 2 to 4.

Over three-quarters of the 13-year-olds for this jurisdiction demonstrate that they can interpret, evaluate, and explore surface and directly implied meanings in straightforward and some complex texts. Over 55%

of 16-year-olds can develop complex meanings in complex texts and surface meanings in some sophisticated texts.

SAIP 1998 READING

YUKON - % of 13-year-olds by performance level

0.9

7.2

38.2

76.7

96.7 0.7

2.6

31.1

77.5

94.3

0 20 40 60 80 100

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Note: Results are statistically different only if confidence intervals do not overlap.

Yukon Canada (E)

CHART 99

SAIP 1998 READING

YUKON - % of 16-year-olds by performance level

8.3

31.6 5.2

22.8 Level 4

Level 5

CHART 100

Virtually all 13-year-olds have at least some grasp of the elements of writing. Most 16-year-olds have a general control of the elements of writing. Their writing has functional development and integration. It conveys a clear, appropriate perspective. Errors are minor and do not interfere with meaning.

Note: Results are statistically different only if confidence intervals do not overlap.

SAIP 1998 WRITING

YUKON - % of 13-year-olds by performance level

2.5

19.2

73.0

95.6

99.4 1.8

17.3

66.7

93.9

99.3

0 20 40 60 80 100

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Yukon Canada (E)

CHART 101

SAIP 1998 WRITING

YUKON - % of 16-year-olds by performance level

10.3

40.3 6.8

30.7 Level 4

Level 5

CHART 102

There are francophone populations living in all areas of Canada. Thirteen-year-old and 16-year-old students in all areas were tested in their first official language following the same procedures. Those francophone students who live in areas with larger concentrations of French-speaking people are recognized as separate populations by jurisdiction in this report. Those francophone students living in relatively smaller populations in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories, and Yukon are, however, too few in number to each be grouped under the province or territory in which they reside. For statistical reasons therefore, the students from these areas are grouped together and reported as one population.

It is important to recognize that these students live in majority anglophone provinces or territories. They are all being schooled in French first language schools. Some live in major anglophone centres, while others live in small francophone or anglophone communities. Because they are in different provinces and territories, they also experience different curricula. Hence, they have a very diverse set of experiences. The following graphs, then, represent the combined achievement of students from the smaller francophone populations across all of Canada.

In reading, the performance of the 13-year-olds differs significantly only at level 3 from the Canadian French performance. For 16-year-olds, reading performance differs at all levels from the Canadian French perfor-mance.

Over three-quarters of the 13-year-olds demonstrate they can interpret, evaluate, and explore surface and directly implied meanings in straightforward and some complex texts. Almost two-thirds of the 16-year-olds can develop complex meanings in complex texts and surface meanings in some sophisticated texts.

SAIP 1998 READING

FRANCOPHONES (OTHER) - % of 13-year-olds by performance level

97.0 82.3

52.3 14.0

1.4

96.2 78.1

41.8 10.4

2.1

0 20 40 60 80 100

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Note: Results are statistically different only if confidence intervals do not overlap.

Francophones (OTHER) Canada (F)

CHART 103

SAIP 1998 READING

FRANCOPHONES (OTHER) - % of 16-year-olds by performance level

40.5 14.5

30.7 7.7

Level 4 Level 5

CHART 104

writing performance differs at levels 2 to 5 from the Canadian French performance.

Over four-fifths of the 13-year-olds demonstrate at least some grasp of the elements of writing. Over half the 16-year-olds demonstrate a general control of the elements of writing. Their writing has functional development and integration. It conveys a clear, appropriate perspective. Errors are minor and do not interfere with meaning.

SAIP 1998 WRITING

FRANCOPHONES (OTHER) - % of 13-year-olds by performance level

99.5 93.8 62.1

13.8 0.9

99.8 81.3 35.4

4.8 0.7

0 20 40 60 80 100

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Note: Results are statistically different only if confidence intervals do not overlap.

Francophones (OTHER) Canada (F)

CHART 105

SAIP 1998 WRITING

FRANCOPHONES (OTHER) - % of 16-year-olds by performance level

37.2 6.9

13.0 0.3

Level 4 Level 5

CHART 106

Each test booklet for the 1998 reading and writing assessments also included a student questionnaire with questions about reading and writing practices and attitudes. There were four different questionnaires, one in each form of the reading assessment, and one in the writing assessment. The first 15 background questions were the same on all forms, except that question 13 asked about motivational aspects of reading on the three reading forms, and about writing on the writing form. There were 54 different questions asked in all.

The following pages highlight some of the results of these questionnaires. More information will appear in the Technical Report. Responses to the questionnaires have been compared to student achievement.

Students who scored below 1, level 1, or level 2 are grouped (2 and – ), and those students who scored at levels 3, 4, and 5 have been grouped (3 and + ).

Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number and may not always add up to 100%. This is due to the fact that, for any question, approximately 3% of the responses may be either missing or ambiguous.

Also, in a few questions (such as grade and type of course) some of the options given the student are not included, in the interests of clarity.