The Fraser Institute today released its popular report card on BC elementary schools, the most convenient and easily accessible tool for parents to compare the performance of their children’s schools.—Fraser Institute press release announcing the delivery of the controversial provincial school rankings
Needless to say, there are two sides to every story and with the Fraser Institute describing its latest publication as a “popular report card”; it wouldn’t be too long before a rebuttal from the Teachers' Federation was prepared.
"Wealthy private schools that require six-year-olds to write entrance exams are rewarded, while public schools who turn no child away are being decimated by underfunding and the misuse of data such as the Foundations Skills Assessment, which is the basis for the Fraser Institutes school rankings."-- Joanna Larson, president of the Prince Rupert District Teachers' Union reacting to the latest findings of the Fraser Institute
It’s spring and for the Fraser Institute that means it’s grading time for the province’s elementary schools. The rankings have always given life to a lively debate, once led to a CBC documentary about education with the curriculum of Roosevelt Park School explored by Mark Kelly.
The controversial rankings from the right wing think tank continue to raise the ire of the province’s teacher’s federation which has been debunking the Institute's findings since 2001. This year is no exception with the Prince Rupert local once again expressing its concerns about the Fraser Institute’s agenda and process of delivering their numbers and the potential damage that those numbers can do to the schools and their students.
Needless to say, there are two sides to every story and with the Fraser Institute describing its latest publication as a “popular report card”; it wouldn’t be too long before a rebuttal from the Teachers' Federation was prepared.
"Wealthy private schools that require six-year-olds to write entrance exams are rewarded, while public schools who turn no child away are being decimated by underfunding and the misuse of data such as the Foundations Skills Assessment, which is the basis for the Fraser Institutes school rankings."-- Joanna Larson, president of the Prince Rupert District Teachers' Union reacting to the latest findings of the Fraser Institute
It’s spring and for the Fraser Institute that means it’s grading time for the province’s elementary schools. The rankings have always given life to a lively debate, once led to a CBC documentary about education with the curriculum of Roosevelt Park School explored by Mark Kelly.
The controversial rankings from the right wing think tank continue to raise the ire of the province’s teacher’s federation which has been debunking the Institute's findings since 2001. This year is no exception with the Prince Rupert local once again expressing its concerns about the Fraser Institute’s agenda and process of delivering their numbers and the potential damage that those numbers can do to the schools and their students.
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As for those numbers locally, all of the city’s elementary schools were reported on in this years report. The surveyed schools in Prince Rupert included Annunciation the city’s lone Independent school and the seven public schools scattered across the city. They were ranked as follows, based on a points system out of ten and range from a high of 6.7 to a low of 0.5.
Annunciation 6.7
Westview 6.0
Lax Kxeen 5.4
Pineridge 5.1
Seal Cove 3.2
Conrad 3.1
Roosevelt Park 2.6
Kanata 0.5
The overall range of the numbers, places Annunciation at 392nd overall in the province, while Kanata was placed third from the bottom of the provincial rating at 978.
The Teacher’s union, which has long been against the methodology of the Fraser Institutes’ findings, expressed its ongoing concern over the state of public education in the province, fearing that the Fraser Institute’s long term agenda is to have the public education system privatized, using their data as a form of data interpretation to show failing schools.
The rankings which traditionally feature private schools and mostly big city schools in the upper reaches of the standings, don’t always capture the true picture of elementary school challenges in rural and disenfranchised areas of the province.
The concern over the Fraser Institute’s reports is that is centered on the Foundation Skills Assessments, the province wide testing procedures for Grades 4 and 7. Those numbers don’t take into account any socio-economic factors in the communities surveyed, nor do they examine the year long learning curve of students in a day to day environment.
It’s a process which may provide a rather incomplete sample of education in the provinces elementary schools, but still will provide much in the way of discussion material for the educational debate on the north coast.
The full report can be found here, the breakdown for just the Coastal schools including Prince Rupert schools here.
The Daily News provided the Teachers Union’s reply to the Institute’s findings with a front page story in Monday’s paper.
TEACHERS OUTRAGED AT NEW FRASER INSTITUTE RANKINGS
As for those numbers locally, all of the city’s elementary schools were reported on in this years report. The surveyed schools in Prince Rupert included Annunciation the city’s lone Independent school and the seven public schools scattered across the city. They were ranked as follows, based on a points system out of ten and range from a high of 6.7 to a low of 0.5.
Annunciation 6.7
Westview 6.0
Lax Kxeen 5.4
Pineridge 5.1
Seal Cove 3.2
Conrad 3.1
Roosevelt Park 2.6
Kanata 0.5
The overall range of the numbers, places Annunciation at 392nd overall in the province, while Kanata was placed third from the bottom of the provincial rating at 978.
The Teacher’s union, which has long been against the methodology of the Fraser Institutes’ findings, expressed its ongoing concern over the state of public education in the province, fearing that the Fraser Institute’s long term agenda is to have the public education system privatized, using their data as a form of data interpretation to show failing schools.
The rankings which traditionally feature private schools and mostly big city schools in the upper reaches of the standings, don’t always capture the true picture of elementary school challenges in rural and disenfranchised areas of the province.
The concern over the Fraser Institute’s reports is that is centered on the Foundation Skills Assessments, the province wide testing procedures for Grades 4 and 7. Those numbers don’t take into account any socio-economic factors in the communities surveyed, nor do they examine the year long learning curve of students in a day to day environment.
It’s a process which may provide a rather incomplete sample of education in the provinces elementary schools, but still will provide much in the way of discussion material for the educational debate on the north coast.
The full report can be found here, the breakdown for just the Coastal schools including Prince Rupert schools here.
The Daily News provided the Teachers Union’s reply to the Institute’s findings with a front page story in Monday’s paper.
TEACHERS OUTRAGED AT NEW FRASER INSTITUTE RANKINGS
'Simplistic' listing of province's schools attacked by union as misleading
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Monday, May 05, 2008
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Monday, May 05, 2008
Pages one and three
With the release of Fraser Institute's controversial 2008 Report Card on British Columbia Elementary Schools and with School District 52 schools again ranked near the bottom of B.C.'s schools, the teachers' union stands firmly opposed to the tables.
With the release of Fraser Institute's controversial 2008 Report Card on British Columbia Elementary Schools and with School District 52 schools again ranked near the bottom of B.C.'s schools, the teachers' union stands firmly opposed to the tables.
Annunciation ranked highest of all Prince Rupert schools with an overall score of 6.7 out of 10, higher than its five-year average of 6.3.
Next on the list was Westview with an overall score of 6.0, followed by Lax Kxeen with a score of 5.4, an improvement from its five-year average of 4.8. Pineridge was next in the ranking with a score of 5.1, also an improvement from previous years.
Further down the provincial rankings were Seal Cove with a score of 3.2 and Conrad Street, below its five-year average score of 3.8 with a current score of 3.1. Roosevelt Park scored a 2.6, and Kanata was ranked second to last place overall in the province with a score of 0.5.
The union representing School District 52 teachers said it was concerned about the detrimental impact on students and on local schools that will come as a result of being ranked against other schools from throughout the province.
"It is clear to me this government is intent on eliminating public education in our province," said Joanna Larson, president of the Prince Rupert District Teachers' Union.
"Wealthy private schools that require six-year-olds to write entrance exams are rewarded, while public schools who turn no child away are being decimated by underfunding and the misuse of data such as the Foundations Skills Assessment, which is the basis for the Fraser Institutes school rankings."
The Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) results are based on raw scores from a single test administered to measure reading, writing and numeracy skills among students in Grade 4 and in Grade 7.
The PRDTU asserts that people marking the tests are instructed to mark them as quickly as possible, to read only the first or last paragraph of the student's writing, and to grade the paper on their 'sense' of the students' ability.
The union says that while the Fraser Institute believes that FSA results are a valid stand-alone measure, the tests fall short of telling the complete story of student achievement or school performance.
"These simplistic rankings misinform the public about how our schools and our students are performing, but the Fraser Institute doesn't care. Their real motivation is to turn our public schools over to the for-profit sector," said Larson.
"There is absolutely no evidence that the results of the Foundation Skills Assessment have anything to do with the quality of the school. We can't figure out why the minister of education, who claims to not like the rankings, continues to release the results to the Fraser Institute."
The Fraser Institute is strongly opposed the the claims of the British Columbia Teachers' Federation and those of district teachers' unions, and maintains that parents want to compare the performance of their children's school against others in their district, and have a right to know where their schools rank in the province.
A recent poll conducted by the COMPAS opinion research firm for the Fraser Institute found that 83 per cent of parents with children under 20 support the right of parents to see the test scores and use them to compare school performance. The same poll also found that 70 per cent of parents agree that the Ministry of Education is on the right track with its province-wide testing policy.
"The results of this poll confirm in a scientific way the support for the Fraser Institute's annual report card on academic performance at B.C.'s elementary schools," said Peter Cowley, director of school performance studies with the Fraser Institute.
"It's gratifying to see how in sync we are with B.C. parents. With more than 80 per cent of B.C. parents saying they support using FSA test results to compare school performance, it's obvious the B.C. teachers' union executive is out of touch with mainstream B.C. parents."
The PRDTU believes that when parents see their schools ranking is low, parents who have the means may be tempted to move their children out of their neighbourhood schools to a higher-ranking school across town, leading to a number of problems including those low-ranking schools being targetted for closure. The union also opposes the ranking of schools since low-ranking schools receive no additional support or resources from the Ministry of Education as a result.
"The best way for parents to find out how their child is doing in school is to talk to the teacher," said Larson.
"Teachers provide regular feedback to parents throughout the year and to their students daily. We hope parents and the public will see through these rankings and trust their own experiences with their neighborhood school."
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