School Completion Rate

Topic Box from the 2006 Sixth Annual Benchmark Report

In 2004/05, BC had a high school completion rate of 79% for all students and 48% for Aboriginal students. The completion rate is provided as a companion to the graduation rate. Completion rates are determined by tracking the number of students entering grade 8 who graduate within six years. Graduation rates as they are presented elsewhere in this report differ from this as they represent the number of graduates in any given year as a percentage of the population of eighteen year olds in that year.

British Columbia's high school completion rate varies considerably by school district, from 93% in Richmond to 59% in Vancouver Island West. The rest of the top five districts (and their respective completion rates) are: West Vancouver (91%), Coquitlam (88%), Southeast Kootenay and Kootenay-Columbia (both at 87%). The bottom five consists of Vancouver Island West (59%), Gold Trail and Nicola-Similkameen (both at 60%), Stikine (62%) and Nisga'a (63%).

The Aboriginal completion rate generally trails that for the non-Aboriginal population with differences ranging from fifty-nine percentage points in New Westminster (77% vs. 18%) to one in the Nisga'a School District (63% vs. 62%). The Aboriginal population's completion in all of BC was thirty-one percentage points below that of the non-Aboriginal population (79% vs. 48%).

On average, English as a second language students (ESL) were more likely than the overall population to get their Dogwood. The ESL completion rate was five percentage points higher than for all students in 2004/05 (84% vs. 79%). The differences in the individual school districts are usually small but range from a twenty percentage point advantage in the Sunshine Coast (100% vs. 80%) to a 49 percentage point disadvantage in the Cowichan Valley (20% vs. 69%).

Note: The Provincial Six-Year Dogwood Completion report for 2001/02 to 2005/06 is expected in the middle of December, which is not in time for our publication deadline.