Fraser Institute Releases Popular BC School Report Card That Allows Parents to Compare School Performance

• Press Release
• Source: The Fraser Institute
• On 9:02 am EST, Saturday February 7, 2009

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Feb. 7, 2009) - The Fraser Institute today released its popular report card on BC elementary schools, the most easily accessible tool allowing parents to compare the academic performance of their children's schools.

"Parents have repeatedly shown they value the ability to track the performance of their child's school and compare it to other schools," said Peter Cowley, Fraser Institute director of school performance studies.

"Our report card allows parents to quickly and easily determine if their child's school is improving or regressing academically. It gives parents information they can use in discussions with teachers and principals."

The Report Card on British Columbia Elementary Schools: 2009 Edition rates 952 public and private elementary schools from across British Columbia based on 10 key indicators using data from province-wide testing provided by the BC Ministry of Education. The report card also includes key demographic information about a school including the number of ESL students, special needs students, and parents' average income. It also shows the percentage of FSA exams written at each school that failed to meet provincial curriculum standards. The report card is available at www.fraserinstitute.org.

"The report card tells parents how many students at a given school are unable to meet provincial standards in reading, writing, or arithmetic. For example, if 30 per cent of children at school can not read at the required level, parents have a right to know and a right to ask that school officials address the matter," Cowley said.

A 2008 COMPAS poll of more than 1,000 BC parents found the overwhelming majority support the BC Ministry of Education's province-wide testing policy and believe parents should be able to use the results of those tests to compare schools.

School Comparison

Cowley points out that the idea of the report card is to encourage schools to improve. Each report card contains enough data to allow for valid comparisons and for parents to ask school officials pertinent questions about a school's performance.

For example, Vancouver schools Sir Mathew Begbie, at 1430 Lilloet Street in East Vancouver, and Elsie Roy, at 150 Drake Street in Yaletown, appear to be quite different.

Begbie has 45 Grade 4 students; Elsie Roy has 42. Begbie has an ESL population of 44.1 per cent; Elsie Roy 36.3 per cent. Begbie has 4.5 per cent of its students with special needs, Elsie Roy has 11.2 per cent special needs. Most tellingly, Begbie parents have an average annual income of $38,800, while Elsie Roy parents have an average annual income of $71,000.

"Those opposed to school comparison would tell you that it's not fair to compare these schools because Elsie Roy is located in a higher income neighbourhood and so its students will do better," Cowley said.

But the data show that's not the case. Begbie scores 7.9 in the report card with a ranking of 120 out of 952. Elsie Roy scores 4.8 with a ranking of 707 out of 952. In addition, results from 2008 FSA exams show that only 9.7 per cent of Begbie students did not meet provincial standards, while 25.4 per cent of Elsie Roy's students did not meet provincial standards.

"Why is the lower income school performing better than the higher income school? What are teachers at Begbie doing and what can other teachers learn from their experience? Those are the questions parents, teachers and administrators should be asking," Cowley said.

Cowley noted that using the report card to compare a private school in a well-off Lower Mainland neighbourhood to a small, rural public school in northern BC may not be useful. But comparing schools that have similar characteristics within the same community can be important for parents and educators alike.

For example, the boundaries of Vancouver schools JW Sexsmith Elementary, at 7455 Ontario Street, and John Henderson Elementary, at 451 East 53rd Avenue, abut each other. Both schools have an ESL population of approximately 50 per cent. Special needs students account for 5.4 per cent and 7.3 per cent, respectively. Neither school offers French immersion. The average annual income of parents whose children attend Sexsmith is $48,200; the average annual income of parents whose children attend Henderson is $41,700. By all measures, the schools have similar characteristics.

But Sexsmith is performing much better than Henderson, having averaged a top quartile ranking of 235 out of 839 on the Fraser Institute report card over the past five years while Henderson has average a bottom third ranking of 606 out of 839 during the same period.

"What accounts for this difference in performance? Each school has a responsibility to provide all of its students, regardless of their personal characteristics and their family background, with the skills and knowledge they need to be successful," Cowley said.

Popularity of standardized testing and comparing schools

In 2008, a COMPAS poll of more than 1,000 BC parents with children under 20 found that 83 per cent support the right of parents to see test scores from province-wide reading, writing, and mathematics tests and use them to compare school performance.

The poll also found that 70 per cent of parents agree that the Ministry of Education is on the right track with its province-wide testing policy.

"BC parents do want the best for their children. Part of that is having the ability to compare school performance and use exam results such as the FSA to do that," Cowley said.

"The results of this poll confirmed in a scientific way the public's support for the Fraser Institute's annual report card on academic performance at BC's elementary schools."

The complete Report Card on British Columbia Elementary Schools: 2009 Edition, is available as a free pdf at www.fraserinstitute.org.

The Fraser Institute is an independent research and educational organization with locations across North America and partnerships in more than 70 countries. Its mission is to measure, study, and communicate the impact of competitive markets and government intervention on the welfare of individuals. To protect the Institute's independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit www.fraserinstitute.org.

Peter Cowley
The Fraser Institute: Media Contact
Director of School Performance Studies
(604) 714-4556 or Mobile: (604) 789-0475
Email: peter.cowley@fraserinstitute.org

Dean Pelkey
The Fraser Institute
Director of Communications
(604) 714-4582
Email: dean.pelkey@fraserinstitute.org
Website: www.fraserinstitute.org