In a career spanning more than 30 years, Bruce Cummings has taught students who achieved top marks in his biology classes.
And that’s one reason the president of the Vernon Teachers’ Association believes the Fraser Institute’s annual rankings of B.C. secondary schools gets a failing grade.
“Vernon teachers place zero value on the ranking system used by the Fraser Institute,” said Cummings. “Changes from year to year depend almost entirely on which random group of students walk in the door.
“I am a biology teacher and in one year and one year only I had 14 out of 26 students achieving at the ‘A’ standard with two of them at 99 per cent on the government exam. Was I a super teacher for only one year in a 33-year career? I don’t think that is the case.”
The Report Card on B.C. Secondary Schools in British Columbia 2012 rates 280 public and private secondary schools based on seven key indicators using data from the annual provincewide exams administered by the B.C. Ministry of Education.
The report card displays individual school results for the past five years, showing whether schools have improved or fallen behind over time.
According to the report, 14 of the fastest-improving secondary schools are public schools, although the top 10 schools are all private.
“Our rankings show that every school is capable of improvement, regardless of the personal and family characteristics of its student population,” said Peter Cowley, Fraser Institute director of school performance studies.
But Cummings said the problem with the public school system is the chronic under-funding by the provincial government.
“While funding is declining for the public schools, public funding for the private school system is increasing,” he said.
Cummings said at one time an accreditation process was used, based on a five-year cycle.
“It was an exhaustive process that thoroughly examined all aspects of a school and usually ended up with a plan for the school to follow from goal-setting to planning professional development,” he said.
“That was a better system. The BCTF has an excellent plan in general, called ‘Better Schools for B.C.’ and it is available on the BCTF web site (bctf.ca).”
School board chairman Bill Turanski said he has some reservations about the report.
“The private schools always come out ahead because they can select their students, we have to take all of our students, which we’re happy to do as that’s why we’re here,” he said.
Vernon trustees have recently returned from the B.C. School Trustees’ Association annual general meeting, where there was some discussion about implementing new ways of reporting school success.
“It’s been recommended that we look at some other way, as I don’t think any of the districts are happy with the current situation,” said Turanski.
District secondary schools were ranked as follows out of 280 B.C. schools:
Kalamalka at number 37; Vernon Christian School, 42; Fulton, 103; Vernon secondary, 139; Charles Bloom, 172; Seaton, 181.
The full rankings can be viewed online at www.fraserinstitute.org.
