SD73 Achieves Highest School Completion Rates in 2023-2024

The Kamloops-Thompson School District is proud to share that 2023-2024 school completion rates are the highest ever achieved by the District. The 2023-2024 6-year* and 5-year** school completion rates were shared at the Regular Public Board Meeting on Monday, January 27, 2025, highlighting some incredible successes as well as areas where work is still required in order to reduce inequities.

In the 2023-2024 school year, all three student group categories – Resident students, Indigenous students, and students with Diverse Abilities – experienced the highest completion rates ever achieved in the Kamloops-Thompson School District.

• Resident students completed school at a rate of 95.3% for the 6-Year Rate and at 91.1% for the 5-Year Rate, both of which exceeded the provincial average rates (91.4% for 6-Year Provincial Average Rate and 86.6% for 5-Year Provincial Average Rate).
• Indigenous students completed school at a rate of 87.5% for the 6-Year Rate and at 78.5% for the 5-Year Rate, exceeding the provincial average rates for Indigenous students (75.5% for 6-Year Provincial Average Rate and 64.8% for 5-Year Provincial Average Rate).
• Students with Diverse Abilities completed school at a rate of 81.1% for the 6-Year Rate and at 73.1% for the 5-Year Rate, exceeding the provincial average rates for Diverse Abilities students (78.0% for 6-Year Provincial Average Rate and 68.2% for 5-Year Provincial Average Rate).

When looking at all student cohorts, the District saw gains in completion rates for all categories, except Students On-Reserve. Although inequities continue to exist, there is evidence that the gaps are narrowing when comparing 3-year completion rate averages, beginning in 2019-2020, for all student groups. When comparing the 3-Year school completion rate averages, the difference between Non-Indigenous and Indigenous students narrowed by 3% (5-Year Completion Rate) and by 1% (6-Year Completion Rate) and the difference between Non-Diverse Abilities students and Diverse Abilities students narrowed by 3% (5-Year Completion Rate) and 5% (6-Year Completion Rate).

District staff continue to work diligently to address all inequities by developing strategies and resources for Kindergarten to Grade 12 students to develop their core competencies and to support learning opportunities and environments which inspire students to thrive.

“We are proud of the students in our district for achieving high completion rates,” shared Dr. Rhonda Nixon, SD73 Superintendent. “We appreciate the staff and parents for supporting students to achieve success, and we recognize that we still have work to do to address inequities for historically marginalized students.”

In order for all students to achieve success, the District is committed to developing foundational skills and core competencies, focusing on inclusion, diversity, and equity, providing timely, relevant, and accurate information to help inform instruction and support, offering flexible learning environments, and fostering meaningful connections.

*The 6-year completion rate is the percentage of students who graduated with a Certificate of Graduation or Adult Graduation Diploma within 6 years from the first time they enrolled in Grade 8 (2018-2019).
**The 5-year completion rate is the percentage of students who graduated with a Certificate of Graduation within 5 years from the first time they enrolled in Grade 8 (2019-2020).