The Vernon battleground mimics the story province-wide: independent schools are topping the rankings.
Vernon Christian School, which leads students from preschool to Grade 12, took the top spot in Vernon for both the elementary and secondary school categories in the Fraser Institute’s Report Card annual ranking, ringing in at No. 144 of 946 and No. 18 of 293 respectively.
The Card ranks 946 public and independent elementary schools based on 10 academic indicators derived from the province-wide Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) results.
“The report card provides parents with information they can’t easily get anywhere else about how their child’s school is performing over time and compared to other schools across the province,” said Peter Cowley, director of school performance studies at the Fraser Institute.
According to their findings, 80 of the top 102 spots were claimed by independent schools.
Contrary to popular belief, the Institute said, families with children enrolled in most independent schools in B.C. have an average, after-tax income only 1.9 per cent higher than parents with children in public schools.
“Simply put, differences in parental income do not appear to explain the differences in the overall ratings of independent and public schools,” Cowley said.
Next to Vernon Christian School, Kalamalka Secondary came in second for Vernon in its category at No. 101 of 293. Lavington Elementary was also in second at No. 294.
In addition to the ranking, the report card also spotlights schools that are improving or falling behind.
However, 16 of the 20 fastest-improving schools are public schools, such as Parkview Elementary in Sicamous, the fastest-improving school provincewide, which has risen to 6.6 from 2.8 since 2013.
Related: 16 of 20 fastest improving B.C. schools are public: Fraser Institute
“All too often we hear excuses that public schools can’t improve student performance because of the communities and the students they serve, but the evidence suggests otherwise,” Cowley said.
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