Fraser Institute results to be the talk of the town

The Daily News put the finishing touches on its article about the results from the Fraser Institute's Elemenatary school report.

The numbers which were released on Saturday morning, painted a picture for local parents and educators of a public system with a few positive developments, while the independent school suffered a bit of a decline from past expectations.

As we outlined on Monday on this blogsite, Westview school is the the school with the best overall record according to the Fraser institute, with the city's only independent school Annunciation finding itself in a rather unusual spot of fourth place in this years rankings.

The Daily featured the story as its front page item in Wednesday's paper.

Fraser Institute’s ranking of schools full of surprises
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Page one and three

Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Public schools are now at the top of the heap locally when it comes to education, according to the Fraser Institute's recently released annual elementary school report card.

Of the local schools, Westview Elementary had the highest ranking in this year's report card, ranked 601st out of 984 schools in B.C. Westview was followed by Lax Kxeen, ranked 756 out of 984, Pineridge 822nd, Annunciation 895th, Conrad Street, 955th, Kanata, 959th, and finally Roosevelt, ranked 963rd out of 984 schools.

The rankings were a big step up for Roosevelt and a big step down for Annunciation.
During the past five years, Annunciation has ranked on average 425 out of 877 among the province's schools, with an overall score out of 10 ranging between 6.4 and 7.6.

This year, the school dropped to 3.7 out of 10 and slid down the rankings.

Meanwhile, Roosevelt Elementary, which received a zero out of 10 last year, has jumped back up to a score of 2.3 out of 10, slightly less than its five-year average.

The Fraser Institute report uses data gathered by the province through the Foundation Skills Assessment tests. Administered in Grade 4 and 7, these tests assess students in reading, writing and numeracy.

"Since the report card tracks results of a school over a number of years, teachers and administrators can also use it to compare results for their schools with those of other schools whose students share similar personal or family characteristics. Seeing how other schools have improved and what they have accomplished can make a useful contribution to each school's on-going improvement efforts," said Peter Cowley, the institute's director of school performance studies and co-author of the Report Card on British Columbia Elementary Schools.

Among other local schools, Conrad Street dropped in score this year, ranking 2.6 out of 10 from a high of 5.1 in 2003. Kanata dropped to 2.4 out of 10, from a high 4.8 in 2003.

Lax Kxeen improved its standings up to 4.9 out of 10 compared to scores in the mid to high three's in the past two years, but still down from its best performance of 6.4 in 2003. Pineridge also improved from 3.5 out of 10 last year to 4.4 this year, but is also down from its historical high of 5.6 in 2003.

Westview Elementary remained consistent, taking a small drop from 6.1 last year to 5.7 this year, but still on the upper end of its five-year scoring spectrum.

Cowley noted this year's report card includes a new indicator that compares each school's overall rating to that which is predicted by the socio-economic characteristics of the students' families. This indicator provides an estimate of the size of the contribution that the school makes to the success of its students.

"Over the years, critics of the report card have suggested that the socio-economic status of their family has a great bearing on students' progress at school. This indicator helps isolate that variable and shows the extent to which schools are successful in helping students overcome the various challenges they face," Cowley said.

Of all the schools, only Lax Kxeen students did better than their parents' education indicated, but very minimally, while Westview did only a fraction less well than the parents' education would indicate.

In addition, this year's report card included a new indicator that measures the number of FSA tests that could have been written by students who were absent from the test but not excused.
"The Foundation Skills Assessments are an important part of the province's Grade 4 and Grade 7 curriculum," said Cowley.

"Higher participation rates in the FSAs provide parents, teachers and school administrators with an objective assessment of students' progress. The results also allow school administrators and teachers to compare results among schools, an important advantage in any school's effort to improve the learning environment."

Conrad Street had the highest percentage of students who did not write the FSAs, at 7.2 per cent. No other school in the district exceeded 3.2 per cent.

Fraser Institute’s elementary schools report for 2007 released over the weekend

While the area’s students, teachers and administrators were enjoying their May long weekend, the Fraser Institute was making sure that there would be much to talk about when school resumes on Tuesday.

The always controversial elementary school report was released on Saturday morning, an online PDF file that takes data from the annual fundamental skills assessments and turns it into province wide rankings.

Based on the FSA’s from Grades four and seven, the institutes reports tend to heat up the emotions of both parents and educators when they are released. It’s a raw data stream that leaves parents and school officials looking for interpretation, a guide to find out if the numbers are the true reflection of the educational system of each city, or just a snapshot of a particularly good or bad day.

There are many that say that the findings should be discounted as they neglect to take into account the many extenuating factors that each classroom can hold, while others say that the results make for an important yardstick for educators and parents to work with to better the school environment.

Regardless, the release of the report does tend to get people talking and this years report will likely follow in the footsteps of past ones when it comes to the reaction generated.

Locally, the number crunching provides some interesting developments on the local scene when compared to previous Fraser Institute reports on Prince Rupert schools.

The top Prince Rupert school according to the data compiled and reviewed is Westview, which scored a 5.7 out of a possible 10 in the rankings. The west side school which has a grade four enrollment of 21 was .8 ahead of Lax Keen which rated a 4.9 and 1.3 points ahead of Pineridge school with a 4.4. The city’s independent school Annunciation, was fourth on the list at 3.7 out of 10, while Conrad rated a 2.6, Kanata a 2.4 and Roosevelt a 2.3.

Seal Cove and Port Edward did not appear on the rankings list in this report, perhaps due to not meeting the class size criteria for grades four and seven. No explanation was provided in the report for their absence in the study.

Overall in the Province, Rupert’s top school, Westview placed 601st of the 984 schools surveyed. The top positions overall, went to the usual schools of West Vancouver and other high income areas, which once again tended to dominate the upper reaches of the rankings, with Crofton House of Vancouver first among the top five schools to rate a 10.0 rating.

The report provided on line comes with a number of breakdowns, there is the overall list of schools in the province, the breakdown of the local school district which can be found on page 16 and for those with much time on their hands there is the 2.3 megabyte PDF of the entire report.

The best way to get the condensed version of the Rupert schools is to select the Prince Rupert rankings, there is a fair amount of raw information available in the charts, including English as a second language levels, special needs requirements and the last five year rankings of each school.

From those numbers we find that Roosevelt is by far the school in town still with the need of the most assistance. That school has the highest level of ESL enrollment and the largest special needs requirements to work with, factors that perhaps can impact on more than a ranking on a piece of paper.

Other schools in the district likewise have increasing levels of need, which no doubt has an impact on test results, school environment and such. The numbers provide a statistical snapshot of the make up of the Grade four classes of 2007, the bell weather year for the FSA’s analysis.

Whether the Fraser Institute’s findings are indeed the definitive word on the educational success rate locally is open to debate, it does provide an interesting snap shot however into how the controversial FSA tests can change the overall image of a school from year to year.

The Fundamental Skills Assessments have become one of the lightning rods of the educational system of late, (this very report is one of the others) with some educators calling for parents to withhold their children from the sessions, claiming that the tests don’t provide an overall view of the education of their child over the course of the year.

On the other side of that debate are those that say the system needs mileposts for any serious form of development to take place. The FSA’s they suggest provide benchmarks for schools on a year to year basis.

The findings as provided by the Fraser Institute will surely make education the topic of debate in the short term, while parent’s teacher and administrators digest the findings and try to figure out where to go from here.

Below we provide the key factors of the Institute’s review, for a wider look at the individual schools check each school’s rankings in the overall Rupert listings.

WESTVIEW (Public)
Enrollment in Grade Four: 21
Ranking out of 10, 5.7
Overall ranking, 601 out of 984
Five year ranking Avg., 509 out of 877
ESL percentage, 8.2%
Special needs, 9.2%
French Immersion, 56.5%

LAX KEEN (Public)
Enrollment in Grade Four: 22
Ranking out of 10, 4.9
Overall ranking, 756 out of 984
Five year ranking Avg., 721 out of 877
ESL percentage, 21.8%
Special needs, 13.4%
French Immersion, 0

PINERIDGE (Public)
Enrollment in Grade Four: 18
Ranking out of 10, 4.4
Overall ranking, 822/984
Five year ranking Avg., 775 out of 877
ESL percentage, 24.2%
Special needs, 18.3%
French Immersion, 0

ANNUNCIATION (Independent)
Enrollment in Grade Four: 26
Ranking out of 10, 3.7
Overall ranking, 895 out of 984
Five year ranking Avg., 425 out of 877
ESL percentage, N/A
Special needs, N/A
French Immersion, 0

CONRAD (Public)
Enrollment in Grade Four: 22
Ranking out of 10, 2.6
Overall ranking, 955 out of 984
Five year ranking Avg., 827 out of 877
ESL percentage, 29.1%
Special needs, 11.6%
French Immersion, 0

KANATA (Public)
Enrollment in Grade Four: 26
Ranking out of 10, 2.4
Overall ranking, 959 out of 984
Five year ranking Avg., 849 out of 877
ESL percentage, 23.8%
Special needs, 9.3%
French Immersion, 0

ROOSEVELT (Public)
Enrollment in Grade Four: 20
Ranking out of 10, 2.3
Overall ranking, 963 out of 984
Five year ranking Avg., 870 out of 877
ESL percentage, 50.8%
Special needs, 27.1%
French Immersion, 0

SEAL COVE (Public) AND PORT EDWARD (Public) SCHOOLS DID NOT APPEAR IN THE FRASER REPORT FINDINGS FOR 2006-07.

Fraser Institute Report card receives local coverage

The Daily News reviewed the findings of the Fraser Institutes annual report card on secondary schools, with an examination of the fate of the schools of the Northwest.

They presented their coverage on the always controversial report, as part of Tuesday’s paper.

FRASER INSTITUE GRADES SCHOOLS’ EFFORTS
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Page one

Three schools in the northwester part of the province were lauded by the Fraser Institute’s annual report card on secondary schools.

Bulkley Valley Christian School, Smithers Secondary and Burns Lake ranked among the 24 most significantly improved schools.

Meanwhile, Charles Hays Secondary and Prince Rupert Secondary both ranked below their five year average in the listing, coming in at 262 out of 291 and 254 out of 291 respectively.

The report card, which examines 291 private and public schools across B. C., used nine indicators to determine the rankings, including the average Grade 10 and Grade 12 provincial examination marks, percentage of Grade 10 and Grade 12 exams failed, difference between the school mark and examination mark in Grade 12 provincially examinable courses, difference between male and female students in Grade 12 English and Math, number of provincially examinable courses taken by Grade 12 students, graduation rate and delayed advancement rate.

“Unlike a simple snapshot, the report card shows parents and educators how each school has done in academics over a number of years, allowing them to judge the school’s ongoing performance,” said Peter Cowley, the Institute’s director of School Performance, Studies and co-author of the report card.

“Seeing how other schools have improved and what they have accomplished can make a useful contribution to each school’s efforts at on going improvement.”

At Charles Hays, the school received a ranking of 4.1 out of 10 this year, up from 3.8 last year but down from its historical five-year high of 6 in 2001.

The average exam mark for Grade 12 students on provincial exams was 64.3 per cent, a number that has been dropping consistently from 67.9 per cent in 2000.

The percentage of provincial exams failed increased from 13.4 per cent in 2005 to 17.8 per cent in 2006, while the graduation rate was 94.3 per cent with delayed advancement at 51.3 per cent.

At Prince Rupert Secondary, the school received a ranking of 4.4 out of 10 this year, down from 4.6 last year and its historical five-year high of 6.7 in 2002 and 2000.

The average exam mark for Grade 12 students on provincial exams was 69.9 the highest ranking for the school in the past five years.

The percentage of provincial exams failed increased from 13.5 per cent in 2005 to 19.7 per cent in 2006, while the graduation rate was 83.7 per cent with delayed advancement at 49.1 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Nisga’a Secondary School increased its ranking from 0 to one this year, with an average Grade 12 exam mark of 56.3 per cent. The percentage of provincial exams failed was up from 28.1 in 2005 to 44.9 in 2006, with the number of provincial exams taken per student at 0.8.

The graduation rate was 100 per cent in 2006, up from 96.5 per cent in 2005 and the delayed advancement rate was 55.3 per cent.

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

Fraser institute issues its alert

It's like an early warning system for the locals, leery of the research methods of the right wing think tank the Fraser Institute.

The Institute issued a press release on Friday, advising one and all that their rather controversial secondary school rankings will be released on Saturday.

In the Friday release, a second press release was promised for bright and early Saturday morning, 6 am to be exact, which will offer more details on the Fraser Institutes rankings of the 291 public and private secondary schools in BC and the Yukon.

All the mystery seems a bit overindulgent, but then the Fraser Institutes rankings of secondary schools in the Province always seem to polarize the province like few things can.

Last year's results didn't sit particularly well with the local populace, many of whom suggest that the Institute ignores a number of socio-economic factors that impact on local education.

The results are designed to provide to spark conversation, which they certainly do, even if some of it is rather heated and seemingly counter productive at times.

In the end, the rankings don't really account for much, despite the rhetoric that comes from the Institutes own public relations releases. The release of the rankings does manage to get people excited and angry in some cases, but we're not sure that they provide for much in the long run that changes the education system to any great degree.

They will however make for supper time reading in the Saturday and Sunday papers from the lower mainland, which print the scorecard with the same diligence as a Canuck's score sheet.

For those not willing to wait for the Vancouver papers to arrive, the Institute promises to publish the results to their web page on Saturday.

Let the sides form up, let the rhetoric begin!