The annual Fraser Institute's Report Card on B.C. high schools was released and reported on in The Province this week.
This is the ranking of how schools stack up against each other.
In the overall rankings, Chatelech comes in a six-way tie for 80th with a score of 7.1 per cent for 2004/05 and a total of 6.8 per cent over the past five years.
Pender Harbour was in a nine-way tie for 126th with a score of 6.5 per cent. Pender had a score of 6.7 per cent for the past five years. Elphinstone finished in a tie for 140th with a score of 5.3 per cent. Elphi averaged 6.1 for the past five years.
While these statistics may seem to be a good idea to the Fraser Institute and the schools lucky enough to rank high on the list, the selective criteria and the hockey statistics style in which this report is presented are clearly flawed.The report provides a ranking of the province's 279 public and private secondary schools.
The results are clearly skewed to favour private institutions and big-city schools that cater to the best students and have no time for the rest.
Want proof? Of the top 10 schools ranked in the Lower Mainland, only two of them are public schools. The highest-ranking public school in the Lower Mainland is University Hill Secondary in Vancouver in 13th overall.
On the Sunshine Coast, we have three high schools that get access to the same education. In the process, when you compare our results to that of the private and big-city schools, it looks like our educators are not doing their job.The report card takes a narrow slate of categories - provincial exam results, graduation rates, differential between school marks and provincial exam marks - and assigns each school a grade out of 10.
The report card doesn't take into account fine arts, athletics, music or parent participation - all things we know our Sunshine Coast schools are proud of.
Is this an accurate reflection on what is going on at our schools?
We certainly don't think so.
Teachers and the government are currently in contract negotiations trying to reach a new deal before a potential job action in September. Instead of putting out this flawed report card, maybe the Fraser Institute should offer some thoughts on class size and composition - two major issues currently at the bargaining table.That's something that would really help education in this province, because this report card certainly doesn't.
