Fraser Institute Education report released with few surprises

In the end and not particularly surprisingly, the rich upscale schools of Vancouver and Victoria fared well in the annual Fraser Institute rankings of secondary schools in the province. While some of the more rural, distant and economically struggling locations, didn’t exactly fit the round peg into the square hole of statistical analysis.

For Prince Rupert residents the results won’t make for enjoyable reading, the latest data compiled from the Institute (found on page five of the coast schools breakdown) shows both PRSS and CHSS continuing to struggle under the marking schemes of the Institute.

Charles Hays gained a score of 4.1 which is up from 3.8 of last year while Prince Rupert Senior Secondary dropped from 4.6 a year ago to 4.4 in this year’s survey. Prince Rupert Senior was ranked as 254th in the Province, while Charles Hays was assessed as 262nd.

The top rated school in the province was Crofton House of Vancouver which received a perfect ten score, tied with five others at the top of the list. While at the other end of the province and the scale, rests the staff and students of Masset’s George Dawson, which didn’t even receive enough points to score above 0.0 and was ranked as 289th in the province.

The controversial rankings have been the flash point of debate in the province ever since 1998 when the Fraser Institute began to rank the province’s schools according to its collected data. Critics suggest that the number crunching approach to the study does not take into account some of the many socio-economic factors that can challenge educators and students alike in the less affluent portions of the province. Saturday's Vancouver Sun looked back at what circumstances brought the Fraser Institute to the conclusion that a ratings system was needed in B. C. education.

There has never been any credible proof provided that these studies actually change the one dynamic that seems to stand out with the yearly report. The private schools with their high tuition and more selective enrollment, tend to track higher than those areas which explore the wide mosaic and numerous challenges of public education.

It’s not clear by simply looking at dry numbers on a website, how these interpretations relate from school to school. Many publicly funded schools have challenges that the upper tier of the Fraser Institute’s report probably would never have to imagine, let alone work with.

In the end, it’s what the youngsters take home each day from their studies that tells the real tale. Over examination of numbers based on a questionable process won’t do much to help them, which is probably why in the end most School Boards and school administrators don’t worry too much about where they rank, instead they hopefully concentrate on doing the best job they can with the resources provided.

If anyone wants to wring their hands over the numbers delivered by the Fraser Institute, maybe it should be the province of British Columbia. Education seems to be a black hole in this province, at times the entrenched attitudes from all participants seem to work at cross purposes to the goal of educating our youth.

If the Fraser Institute wants to provide a real service, perhaps they can help their anxious readers in Victoria to rise to the need to better fund education and make sure that the field is more level before we start keeping score.

Saturday’s Vancouver Sun examined the results just released from the Fraser Institute and what impact that they may have on the education of the province’s secondary students.

Fraser marks it zero to 10
EDUCATION I Fraser Institute's controversial report card of B.C. schools puts rich private schools at the top
Janet Steffenhagen
Vancouver Sun
Saturday, April 14, 2007

Elite independent schools took top honours again this year in the Fraser Institute's report card on B.C. secondary schools, but two public schools from Vancouver's west side and one from West Vancouver were not far behind.

University Hill and Lord Byng secondary were the highest ranking public schools with a score of 9.2 out of 10, followed closely by Sentinel secondary in West Vancouver with 9.1.

The schools that scored a perfect 10 were Crofton House, Little Flower Academy, St. George's, York House, Southridge and West Point Grey Academy. All are in Vancouver except for Southridge, which is in Surrey.

The first four have had perfect marks every year for the past five years.

Their high standings are not surprising, given that the schools accept only students who pass entrance exams and meet strict criteria, and also pay $10,000 to $15,000 a year in tuition. They are among 15 university-preparatory schools in B.C. and they expect to score well in the report card.

The top 25 schools also include five independent religious schools: Richmond Christian, Pacific Academy in Surrey, St. Thomas Aquinas in North Vancouver, St. Thomas More in Burnaby and Kelowna Christian.

While University Hill ranked high, it was also identified as one of the three fastest declining schools in the Lower Mainland, having slipped to 13th from a ninth-place average during the past five years. The other two schools that dropped are Maple Ridge secondary and Thomas Haney secondary, both in Maple Ridge.

University Hill principal Jill Philipchuk said while she applauds the hard work of her students and teachers, the report card is only one narrow measure of a school's success and does not prove her school is better than others.

In fact, she said John Oliver secondary on Vancouver's east side -- which ranked the lowest of Greater Vancouver schools with a score of 3.8 -- is better than University Hill in many ways because it offers more electives, clubs and after-school opportunities.

"A student who does well at my school would do equally well at John Oliver," she said in an interview. "The teachers are just as good at John Oliver as they are here."

University Hill is a small school that draws students from the University of B.C. campus and the endowment lands. Their parents are mainly UBC faculty, staff and graduate students -- some of whom have poverty-level incomes but are not caught in a cycle of poverty, she said.
The common feature is that they all value education, Philipchuk added.

The school has 525 students, with 20 per cent ESL families from Korea, Hong Kong or China who often have high regard for the rankings, she said. "They think the Fraser Institute is the be-all and the end-all" and they don't want their children in a school that ranks poorly even when that school is a better match for their students.

"The Fraser Institute has a huge impact," she added. "It damns schools it shouldn't damn and it applauds schools but in a very narrow way."

Kevan Moore, principal at John Oliver, said his school suffers from the negative publicity that routinely accompanies the report. Like many schools on Vancouver's east side, its population has dropped, down to 1,130 students in a building that can hold 1,700.
Although he says the report card, with its focus on academics, doesn't give a true picture of his school, "parents look at it and they make judgments based on it. That can hurt a school -- any school that is low in the rankings."

John Oliver doesn't score well on the report card for several reasons. "It's a different demographic," said Moore, who was previously a University Hill vice-principal. While some John Oliver students are focused on academics, many more are headed to community colleges, trade schools and jobs.

"Provincial exams for many of our students are not a major focus," he said. "I'm not saying those [exams] aren't important and as a school, we are working to raise our achievement levels ... but it's a different population."

George M. Dawson secondary in Masset scored even worse than John Oliver. The Haida Gwaii school on the Queen Charlotte Islands is one of three at the bottom of the report card, scoring zero out of 10. The other two are in Gold Lake and Watson Lake.

Dawson principal Lorrie Joron said she doesn't care what the Fraser Institute thinks of her school.

"We deal with individuals -- we don't deal with numbers. We take it case by case every day, trying to give peace in some of these kids' really hellish lives. It's not all of them, but we have a higher percentage than anywhere else.

"Kids at the north end of this island are rated socio-economically at risk more than anywhere else in the province ... [and the report] reflects that," she said, noting that success could be just two girls getting pregnant during the year instead of five or six from previous years.
"Those are the kinds of successes you can't measure."

There are also gifted children "but that one per cent doesn't make a big impact when the numbers come out provincially," said Joron, who is a first-year principal but has taught at the school since 1989.

The B.C. Teacher's Federation has been a vociferous opponent of the report card, saying the complexities of teaching can't be reduced to a single number derived from standardized tests.
BCTF Vice-president Irene Lanzinger said several jurisdictions -- such as Wales, Scotland and Finland -- have recognized that standardized tests are a limited measure of student performance, and she urged parents to do more research before forming an opinion about a school.

Peter Cowley, the report card's author, said his detractors argue that testing takes time away from learning. But he says that begs the question: Without testing, how could one be confident there is more learning?

He urged schools to compare their performance to those with similar characteristics. If they find the others have better results, they should ask why. A feature on the Fraser Institute website allows for targeted comparisons that aren't possible in the hard copy edition.

The report card also identifies the schools that have shown the fastest improvement over the past five years. Lakes District public school in Burns Lake tops the list followed by the independent Bulkley Valley Christian school. In third place is Richmond secondary.

Richmond principal Jim McLeod said one reason for his school's strong academic performance is its international baccalaureate program, which draws students from across the district because it's the only IB offering in Richmond.

Although the program has been around for some time, a legislative change a few years ago made it easier for students to cross boundaries to attend schools of their choice. That brought even more motivated students into Richmond high and gave the school an advantage, McLeod said.
About half the 300 students in Grade 12 are involved in the IB program, either full- or part-time. Efforts in IB classes to challenge students and encourage them to dig deeper for answers have spread throughout the school, McLeod said.

As well, he said most students arrive at the school wanting to learn. "I don't hear a lot of kids saying, 'Well, I'm passing, what's the problem?' They come with an attitude that they want to do well.

"When I walk the halls and they're on their study block, I generally don't see them playing cards. I see them studying."

jsteffenhagen@png.canwest.com