Fraser Institute Releases B.C. School Report Card

Friday, May 02, 2008 02:43 PM

Prince George, B.C.- The Fraser Institute has released its annual report card on schools throughout the province. In Prince George, the school withthe highest ranking ( out of 10) is Immaculate Conception, while the highest ranking public school is Edgwood with a 7.9 out of 10.

Immaculate Conception also ranked 53 out of 981 schools examined province wide.

You can access the complete reports on elementary schools throughout the interior and north by clicking here.

As for secondary schools, the highest ranking secondary school is Cedars Christian, with a ranking of 7.1, butamong the public schools, the highest ranked is Duchess Park witha rank of 5.9 out of ten, which is a slip from 6.3 recorded a year ago.

The full ranking of School District 57 Secondary schools can be accessed here.

The Fraser Institute also did a comparison of two schools within the region:

Beaverly Elementary, at 9777 Western Road in Prince George, and Dragon Lake Elementary, at 2655 Hydraulic Road in Quesnel, have similar characteristics. Beaverly has an ESL population of 3.5 per cent and Special Needs population of four per cent while Dragon Lake has an ESL population of 4.1 per cent and Special Needs population of 4.5 per cent. Neither school offers French immersion and the average education level for parents whose children attend both schools is 14.4 years.

But Dragon Lake in Quesnel has an average ranking over the past five years of 353 out of 868, in the top 40 per cent of schools, while Beaverly has ranked 563 out of 868, in the bottom 40 per cent of schools.
“The value of the report card is found in giving parents information they can use to ask why one school is doing better than another when the two schools have similar characteristics and student populations,” said report co-author Peter Cowley.

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Posted on Friday, May 02, 2008 02:43 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: xommilf on May 2 2008 3:50 PM

The detailed report, available on the Fraser Institute website, reveals that Cedars has only 18 students in grade 12, no Math 12 exam results, and no special needs students reported.
The secret to success is small classes (come on Shirley, cough up the money), avoidance of tough courses, and absence of special needs students (too costly for a private school; adds to the overhead).
Public education is underfunded and overloaded. Publicly funded schools are there for everyone, all the time. They will always come out second best under the Fraser Institute's biased, elitist criteria.

Posted by: REALIST on May 2 2008 5:08 PM

Anything written by the Fraser Institute is not worth reading. It was created as a propaganda tool by the neo-liberals. Only an idiot would put any stock in what they say.

Posted by: Palopu on May 2 2008 8:15 PM

Just like the BC Teachers Federation. A bunch of card carrying NDP;ERS, Political Hacks, and self serving gad abouts.

Posted by: xommilf on May 2 2008 9:46 PM

Palopu. You're right the BCTF is politicized to the left. The Fraser Institute is politicized to the right. It would be nice if we could find somebody who would put the kids first and worry about why Johnny and Janey can't read or add numbers without a calculator.

Posted by: culturevulture on May 3 2008 10:48 AM

If you take a look at school performance and socio-economic background of the community, you will see a strong correlation.

Communities that value education and have the money to provide the extras (whatever they are) have the schools that excel. This has always been the case. It doesn't mean that communities that perform poorly on the rankings should stop looking for excellence in schools. Another option would be to examine the community and see what can be done to enhance the value of education. As a retired teacher, It was painful to see kids from disadvantaged families come into the classroom. Kids pay attention to their parents attitude towards the school system and it shows in their performance at school, in absenteeism and motivation.

Schools like Duchess Park constantly perform better
on the rankings. You would see a difference if the French Immersion program was killed off at Duchess. Hmmm

Posted by: caranmacil on May 3 2008 11:04 AM

Bravo culturevulture for pointing out parents attitudes. I was raised by parents with 12 years of school between them. They INSISTED that we children do well at school, graduate and go the college or university if possible. Most of the middle and lower middle class families in the neighbourhood i grew up in were the same. Our graduation rate was near 100 percent. It doesnt really matter how much money you throw at a school, if the parents have no use for education the kids will perform poorly.
I have also found that there is a lot of emphasis on personal planning at my kids school. What this works out to (in my cases anyway) is parental involvement making sure the kids are keeping up with the work. It all boils down to the parents.