The Fraser Institute released its controversial annual ranking of B.C. secondary schools on Wednesday, June 26.
The think tank ranks the schools based on seven academic indicators, including annual provincewide exams, grade-to-grade transition rates and graduation rates.
In this year’s calculations, Delview was one of the top 10 fastest improving schools in the province, from a rating of 5.8 out of 10 in 2014 to a 6.7 in 2018.
READ MORE: Fraser Institute releases latest B.C. high school rankings
According to senior policy analyst Angela MacLeod, the improvement was due to two main contributors.
First, MacLeod said provincewide exam results improved at Delview, from an average score of 64.7 per cent in 2014 to 72.5 per cent in 2018.
“That is definitely a statistically significant improvement,” she said.
Second, she said the school narrowed the gap between the provincewide exam results and other marks given to students by the school.
She said closing the gap shows the school is not assessing students at a different level than what the provincewide exams suggest.
“You would expect the students would perform approximately the same,” she said. “When there’s a large difference it makes you wonder what’s going on.”
Southpointe Academy again scored the highest spot of Delta secondary schools, with a 2018 rating of 7.5 out of 10 and a rank of 44th out of the 251 B.C. secondary schools total.
READ MORE: Private schools top public elementaries in Delta—Fraser Institute rankings
The ranking is often criticized for appearing to favour private schools, but the think tank believes it provides valuable information.
“All too often, we hear excuses that public schools can’t compete with independent schools because of the communities and students that they serve, but that’s just not true—every school can improve and strive to rank higher than the year before,” MacLeod said.
While ratings for other schools in the district went down, including North Delta, Sands, Burnsview, Delta and South Delta, MacLeod said the schools were “holding steady.”
“The good news is none of the schools are showing statistically significant decline,” she said. “But of course, I think all these schools have the opportunity to do better.”
MacLeod recommended that other schools in the district call the leaders at Delview to ask what they have been doing to improve.
READ MORE: North Delta’s Delview Secondary celebrates 50 years
Delta School District communications and marketing manager Jen Hill declined to comment on the rankings.
“Generally speaking, the Fraser Institute is not a resource that we look at as being a means to track our student, school or district success,” Hill said in an email.
“Overall, the Fraser Institute fails to consider the majority of students in a school. Subject areas such as fine arts, science, social studies, and sports, citizenship and the cultural factors that make each school unique to the student populations they serve, are not included in their reports.
“The picture they paint is very misleading.”
To view the full report visit compareschoolrankings.org.
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