What's in the Reports?
Essentially what the British Columbia-based think tank has done is the following: "The foundation of the Report Card is an overall rating of each school's academic performance. Building on data about student results provided by the Ministry of Education, each school is rated on a scale from zero to 10.
For each school five indicators of school performance are measured:
- The percentage of advanced courses taken
- The percentage of courses passed
- The core courses taken per student
- The difference between male and female students in the average course mark received for advanced grade 12 level English (or French for schools designated by the Ministry as having French as the language of instruction
- The difference between male and female students in the average course mark received for advanced grade 12 level Mathematics. From these statistics, a rating for each of the six school years, 1993/94 through 1998/1999, has been calculated."
Unhappy Teachers, Happy Parents
Naturally, school teachers, as you might expect, aren't too pleased about having this information revealed in a fashion which encourages comparison. Their unions have come right out and denounced the report. On the other hand, parents are delighted. 300,000 downloads of the Institute's report in 2005 alone indicates just how interested parents are in the data. At last they have the information they need to make comparisons and ask serious questions of school administrations.
The Fraser Institute has produced reports ranking 5,500 public and private schools in four provinces.
So, here we are again dealing the issue of ranking schools. This time it seems to be cloaked in the garb of 'accountability.' People have begun to demand answers and results, with concomitant threats of budget reductions or worse if those answers are not forthcoming.
Ranking=Accountability
Private schools and teachers' unions have long resisted the idea of ranking schools. Yet parents constantly ask for it simply so that they can be assured that their education dollars are indeed spent wisely. While schools are not cars or houses, tuition is a major expense for consumers. Our taxes pay for public schools; our school fees pay for private schools. So why shouldn't we have a right to know the results of these expenditures? Don't we also have the right to have this information presented to us in a meaningful, understandable fashion? It is high time some public-spirited foundation stepped up to the plate and commissioned a thorough evaluation of the almost 30,000 private schools and 100,000 public schools in this country. Many folks will be very delighted to see the results of that project.
A tip of the hat to Peter Cowan and the Fraser Institute for shedding some sunshine on the subject!
