This annual report combines the November, January, April, June, and August provincial results in diploma examination courses in Alberta, Canada. The graphs, tables, and text describe student performance for the entire school year. The report is designed to assist school personnel in identifying patterns of student achievement in Alberta and monitoring the effectiveness of their programs in support of student learning. The Diploma Examination Program, established in 1984, certifies the level of individual student achievement in selected grade-12 courses and it helps ensure that province-wide standards of achievement are maintained. The program reports individual and group results. During the 1997-98 school year, final course grades show that, in all courses except Mathematics 33, more than 90% of students achieved the "acceptable" standard. A high percentage of students achieved the standard of excellence in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics 30. The report contains these sections: (1) "Grade 12 Diploma Examinations Program"; (2) "Summary of Results"; (3) "Results by Gender"; (4) "Results for Population Subgroups"; (5) "Special Study: Achievement-over-Time for the Multiple-Choice Section of the English 30 and Social Studies 30 Examinations 1989-1998"; (6) "Special Study: Achievement-over-Time for the Biology 30 Extended Written-Response Question (June 1995 and June 1998 Comparison)"; and (7) "Examiner's Annual Summary Statements." Three appendixes describe the examination development process, give guidelines for interpreting and using the program results, and show the percentage distribution of grades in diploma examination courses. (Contains 39 figures and 43 tables.) (SLD)