Monday, April 23, 2018

Annunciation continues to claim top spot in local Fraser Institute rankings; but improving results found for public schools in Prince Rupert

Annunciation, the city's Catholic Independent School slipped somewhat in its results from last year, however while the school returned to a level last seen in 2013, it still continues to claim the highest point of the listings from the Fraser Institute review of Prince Rupert elementary schools for 2017.

Sunday brought the delivery of the annual report, a document that often is the focus of much controversy among educators and administrators, who believe it does not provide a fair assessment of the state of education in the province.

Using data from 2016-17 to compile it's list of how the schools are shaping up, the Fraser Institute findings show that Prince Rupert public schools have found some modest success in most cases from the results of one year ago.

The main focus of the Fraser Institute reports examine results found in areas such as Writing, Reading and Numeracy, with trends and class composition also included as part of the annual findings.

The review which was released on Sunday examined results for 946 public and elementary schools using 10 academic indicators that are taken from the province wide Foundation Skills Assessment results,

The Annual  report based on the controversial exams make for results that aren't particularly well regarded by many members of the BCTF and school administrations.

For many the snapshot model that the FSA's provide, and which the Fraser Institute highlights, do not offer a full overview of student achievement, nor it's observed do they take into account any number of factors that may impact on student achievement.

For others, including some parents however, the FSA's and the annual release of information from the Fraser Institute offers up the only measuring stick for how students are progressing compared to other districts.

While the debate over the validity of the survey continues on, the results for Prince Rupert can be examined below:

The findings for Annunciation placed it with an 7.2 out of ten rating, listed as 215 of the 946 elementary schools reviewed by the Fraser Institute.





The result for the Independent school knocked it out of the 95th spot overall that it had claimed last year, with the Prince Rupert school matching up with other Independent schools in the Northwest as follows:

Saint Joseph's in the Bulkley Valley was listed at 8.4 out of 10

Saint Anthony's in Kitimat was listed at 8.3 out of 10

Veritas in Terrace was listed at 8.2 out of 10

Ebenezer in the Bulkley Valley was listed at 8.1 out of 10

Centennial Christian was listed at 6.4 out of 10

Of the four public schools that make up the Prince Rupert listings, Lax Kxeen once again was ranked the highest in the city, with a ranking of 4.8 out of ten, listed at 756 of 946 in the provincial survey.






Two of the three remaining public schools, Roosevelt and Conrad, improved on their results of last year, while Pineridge dropped somewhat from last years mark.

Those findings are as follows:

Roosevelt  at 4.3/10 or  809/946
Conard      at 4.0/10 or  836//946
Pineridge  aat 2.3/10 or  922/946



The full report can be reviewed here.

The Prince Rupert Results can be examined on page 55, while results for Terrace and Kitimat are available on page 47.

Smithers results are available on page 72.

Results for schools on Haida Gwaii are available on page 53 .

There were no reports generated for the schools in Port Edward

This marked the first year that results were provided for the Lax Kw'alaams Coast Tsimshian Academy, though the data is somewhat incomplete in some categories.



The report also features an Interactive Search Engine to help narrow down your search for information.

A look at some of the past results for Prince Rupert can be found below:

2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012

Peter Cowley, one of the authors of the annual review noted, that while Independent schools continue provide for higher performance results, a number of the province's public schools are delivering improving outcomes.

As well Cowley highlighted how the Fraser Institute report makes for a helpful benchmark for parents as they review the education of their children.

“The report card provides parents with information they can’t easily get anywhere else about how their child’s school is performing over time and compared to other schools across the province,”

The Fraser Institute offered up a short synopsis of its findings through this media release.

As they have in years past, the BCTF's response was short and to the point as the provincial teacher's Union took to twitter to note that they still consider the report as an irrelevant review of education in British Columbia.



Much like their thoughts on the report itself, the themes found on the #BCED twitter feed and that of the #BCTF provide a short glimpse of the current response to Sunday's release of information.

Public feedback was also quickly delivered to some of the province's media outlets on Sunday, who put some focus on the annual results and reaction to them.

"They're not objective at all' Educators dispute Fraser Institute's B.C. School rankings
Private elementary schools in B.C. take top ranks: Fraser Institute Report

May school administrators direct parents, guardians and students towards some of the data made available by the Provincial Government as a more comprehensive look at the schools of the province, an archive of information which comes without the numerical ranking for each community.

The elementary school review is the first of two educational reports from the Fraser Institute each year. A review of the Secondary School's in the province will be released by the Fraser Institute later in the Spring.

More background related to education in the Northwest can be found on our archive page.



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