Fraser Institute issues annual report card on B.C. secondary schools, BCTF says it won’t comment

The Fraser Institute’s annual report card of public and independent secondary schools in British Columbia shows big gains in performance for schools outside the Lower Mainland.

The report shows that 34 schools showed improvements from last year, with six of the 10-fastest improving schools based in Kitimat, Princeton, Prince Rupert, Trail, Terrace, and Kamloops.

Of the 253 schools studied, 34 showed declines in performance.

The report ranks schools on seven factors, including average marks in Grade 12 English, percentage of those failing the provincial exam, and graduation rates.

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“The purpose of the report is to provide objective and comparable information to parents with regards to how individual schools are doing in academics,” says Peter Cowley, the director of school performance studies with the Fraser Institute.

The B.C. Teachers Federation (BCTF) has long been critical of the report card, saying it does not accurately measure a school’s effectiveness. It says it will no longer comment on the yearly release.

Cowley disagrees.

“The teachers union doesn’t want any measures … that would enable a parent to come to the conclusion that the staff in one school, for whatever reason, are doing a more effective job than the staff in another school,” Cowley says.

If the teachers union or any other group feels it has other data that should be made available to the parents and to other educators, Cowley says it should release a report of its own.