Some schools in School District 51 (SD51) are considered subpar according to the latest Report Cards on B.C. Schools released by the Fraser Institute.
Based on data from province-wide tests, elementary and secondary schools are ranked out of 10.
Boundary Central Secondary School (BCSS) in Midway ranked 198 out of 280 secondary schools in the province, with a 5.3 rating out of 10.
Grand Forks Secondary School (GFSS) fared slightly better, ranking 181 out of 280, with a 5.4 rating out of 10.
An average rating for secondary schools is a six out of 10.
In terms of local elementary schools, which are ranked based on the Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) tests, John A. Hutton Elementary ranked 205 out of 860, with a 7.2 rating out of 10.
Dr. D. A. Perley Elementary School was ranked lower at 454, with 5.8 rating out of 10.
Christina Lake, Midway and Greenwood elementary schools were not included on the list, since the schools did not have the minimum enrollment number of students, which is 15.
“We do have criteria to whether or not a school is included or not, and that criteria is intended for one thing, which is to assure us that we have a reasonable amount of data that we can fairly rate this school,” explained Peter Cowley, senior vice-president of operations and director of School Performance Studies at the Fraser Institute.
“This means they have to have at least 15 students in Grade 10, 15 students in Grade 11 and 15 students in Grade 12. They also need to have 15 test results from each of those three years. That’s our way of ranking a school not just based on a few results.”
In British Columbia, the elementary school rankings look at data from Grades 4 and 7.
Cowley stated rankings were done on schools regardless of what a school wants. Cowley pointed out that it is a relative rating, and the question to ask is how well is this school doing compared to other schools in the report card. “Generally, on average, Lower Mainland schools do better than rural schools,” he said. “If you look at all the schools that are located in the Lower Mainland, their average rating out of 10 is 6.7. If you look at the Fraser Valley in Southern B.C., the average rating is 6.2.”
Norm Sabourin, president of the Boundary District Teachers’ Association, said he and the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation do not agree with the school rankings.
“It’s a misuse of data and doesn’t really serve any positive purpose,” he said. “The school rankings tend to favour private schools and it’s no surprise that they do well because they can limit who can come into the building. The public school system takes in all students and does an incredible job with working with those who struggle the most.”
Sabourin noted that research indicates that the biggest determinants to success in school have to do with socioeconomic status.
“For a student who comes from poverty and a lack of support, it’s much more difficult for them to succeed,” he explained. “It’s equally amazing how many of them do (succeed). Teachers have different stresses in different areas, including larger class sizes and lower socioeconomic neighbourhoods with lower resources.”
Sabourin suggested instead of school rankings via provincial tests, a more accurate indicator would be randomly selecting students (like Finland), which would drive changes in curriculum.
“If we took a random sampling of anonymous students and gave them a test, the ministry could look at those results and say, ‘it looks like there are deficiencies in these areas and these other areas are pretty strong,’” he said. “To revamp the curriculum, we need to look at these areas.”
The information would then be forwarded to teachers to be applied, stated Sabourin.
Michael Strukoff, superintendent of schools for SD51, thinks the report is interesting but does not play a significant part in SD51’s planning.
“We do learn about parent average income for our schools and can see the income of all other schools,” Strukoff said. “GFSS and BCSS are ranked below the average for academic standings, do you think this is a fair assessment? If you look at the detailed data, both schools’ actual ratings are higher than what their formulas would predict for our high schools.”
Strukoff cautions that there is no system that will tell the whole story of a school or its students.
“The report itself cautions that indicator results for small schools tend to be more variable than do those for larger schools and caution should be used in interpreting the results for smaller schools,” he concluded. “In the provincial context, both of our high schools are small.”
Cowley agrees and doesn’t suggest choosing a school purely on an academic basis, however.
“Depending on your child’s needs, there are a lot of different aspects of schooling that you may want to look into when you are choosing a school,” he said. “We do recognize, especially in rural parts of Canada, there isn’t much choice for schools.”
The Fraser Institute releases the report on high schools and elementary schools once a year.
