Readin', Writin' and Reportin’

Last month it was Prince Rupert’s high schools that bore the brunt of scrutiny upon release of the Fraser Institute’s rankings of secondary schools across the province, today the Institute turned its attention towards those schools that feed those secondary schools. In the second part of their annual study, the Institute released its elementary school findings.

And once again Prince Rupert’s educational system is under the micro-scope as a good number of Prince Rupert Elementary Schools, hold down positions close to the bottom of the list.

The controversial reports have long been the topic of raging debate as educators, administrators, parents and politicians divine their own personal view of the statistics and use them to bolster or challenge the concept of education in the province.

As I have reported in past Podunk postings, these yearly evaluations tend to draw up battle lines over the issue of education. Are the statistics indicative of a collapse of learning values in the Northwest, or do other unreported factors skew the numbers the way they do? It’s a topic that will no doubt get a full airing on Wednesday night at Charles Hays School as School District 52 brings Mr. Peter Cowley, Director of School Performance Studies at the Fraser Institute to town.

Mr. Cowley will be making a presentation on the Fraser Institutes “School Report Cards”, and is apparently prepared to face the masses to take and answer questions from the audience. His review of the numbers as they pertain to the Prince Rupert School District will take place in the Multipurpose Room at CHSS at 7:30.

As the statistics gathered were being presented an interesting roundtable discussion was taking place on CKNW’s Bill Good show, in the 9-10 am hour on Monday, Good had a number of panelists on to discuss the Fraser Report findings province wide and address the merits (or lack thereof) of the program. It made for some heated conversation and proved to be a most informative hour about one of British Columbia’s most hot button topics, that of the educational system. You can check out the discussion on the CKNW Audio Vault, just select Monday morning, the 9-10 am block and listen in to learn more about the entire process.

The Daily News had a comprehensive look at the Rupert numbers, including comments from local educators and union officials. We provide the article for our Podunk audience below.

RUPERT SCHOOLS GET MAULED BY THINK-TANK
By James Vassallo
The Daily News
Monday, May 15, 2006
Page One

The majority of Prince Rupert’s elementary schools are among the poorest academic performers in the province, according to the latest report by the Fraser Institute.

The Institute’s annual ranking of the province’s elementary schools ranks five Prince Rupert schools – Kanata (917), Lax Kxeen (933), Pineridge (933), Conrad Street (959), and Roosevelt Park (1,007) – in the bottom 10 per cent of its survey of 1,009 schools.

Nine factors were used to determine the rankings, including average Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) scores in Grade 4 and 7 for reading, writing and numeracy (math).

“The FSA results are the only objective data available that measure the extent to which BC’s public and private elementary schools are ensuring that their students have acquired the basic skills they need to further their education,” said Peter Cowley, director of school performance studies at the Institute and co-author of the Report Card.

According to the report, the city’s best public school continues to be Westview (528). The school outshines all others in the district including the city’s Catholic school – in the categories of Grade 4 reading, writing and numeracy and Grade 7 numeracy.

“We’ve got great parents, teachers and kids that are always working forward for continual improvement,” said Janet Gordon, Westview principal.

Annunciation, the only Rupert independent school, marked highest at 336. The school has the highest percentage of students that take the FSA tests yearly and also the lowest number of special needs and ESL students in the city.

While some of the results may worry parents and teachers, Brian Kangas, superintendent of schools, warns the FSA test are just a “one shot deal” and don’t tell the whole story about academic achievement.

”Our teachers are much more interested in the day-to-day business,” he said.

The FSA results are valuable when used to compare School District 52 with provincial averages, but are not as helpful when used on a school or individual level, said Kangas. In the case of a school like Roosevelt, which tied with two other schools for last in B.C., the issue is how far the students have come from where they started.

“The most important thing is to look at the individual programs those kids are using,” said Kangas, noting some students at that school have been identified as the most vulnerable in the province. “The progress those kids make from the time they enter to Grade 7, that’s the important thing.

“We’re very proud of the fact that the school completion rates for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students are well above the provincial average.”

Local teacher’s union president Marty Bowles gives the tests even less credibility saying students don’t perform on them because they know they don’t count for anything, they’re culturally biased and take time from teachers that should be used for helping students.

“How many of the results include the EDI results, the (Dr. Clyde) Hertzman data? How does this help our students?” he said.

“We spend a lot of time collecting data and giving it to (the government), but it’s ignored.”

Representatives from the Fraser Institute will be in Prince Rupert this week on Wednesday at 7:30 p. m. in the CHSS multipurpose room.