The Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) is advising students, families and educators that it is adjusting the weight of Grade 12 diploma exams for the remainder of the 2022-23 school year.
Alberta Education has adjusted the weighting of diploma exams from 30 per cent to 20 per cent of a student’s final mark, due to learning disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The GNWT will provide the same support to Northwest Territories (NWT) students. For the 2022-2023 school year the overall scores for courses with diploma exams will be calculated as follows in NWT schools:
• 80 per cent – the school-awarded mark
• 20 per cent – the diploma examination score
The weighting of diploma exams is expected to return to 30 per cent effective September 1, 2023. If students rewrite a diploma exam that they originally wrote in the 2021-2022 school year, their exam score will be worth 20 per cent of their final mark this year.
There were a small number of students who completed diploma exams in November 2022; the Department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE) is working to identify these students and will determine the best course of action on a case-by-case basis.
The diploma exams are taken in select Grade 12 courses. The purpose of the exams is to certify the level of individual student achievement in select Grade 12 courses, to ensure that standards of achievement are maintained, and to report individual and group results.
