VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 14, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Fraser Institute today released its annual rankings of B.C. elementary schools, the most easily accessible tool for parents to compare the academic performance of the province’s schools.
The Report Card on British Columbia’s Elementary Schools 2019 ranks 955 public and independent elementary schools based on 10 academic indicators derived from the provincewide Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) results.
“The report card offers parents information they can’t easily get anywhere else, about how their child’s school performs over time and compares to other schools in B.C.,” said Angela MacLeod, a senior policy analyst at the Fraser Institute.
Contrary to common misconceptions, the data suggest every school is capable of improvement regardless of type, location and student characteristics.
For example, Armstrong Elementary in the city of Armstrong is the province’s fastest-improving school, climbing from a score of 1.9 (out of 10) in 2014 to 6.1 in 2018. And Armstrong’s Grade 4 students showed significant improvement in reading, writing and math.
Over the same time period, Maria Montessori in Victoria improved from 7.3 to 9.5—despite having a 20.1 per cent special needs population.
“We often hear excuses in B.C. that schools can’t improve student performance because of the communities and students they serve, but the evidence suggests otherwise,” MacLeod said.
For the complete results on all ranked schools and to compare the performance of different schools, visit www.compareschoolrankings.org.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Angela MacLeod
Senior Policy Analyst, Fraser Institute
(403) 216-7175 ext. 427
angela.macleod@fraserinstitute.org
Mark Hasiuk
(604) 688-0221 ext. 517
mark.hasiuk@fraserinstitute.org
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The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal and ties to a global network of think-tanks in 87 countries. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for Canadians, their families and future generations by studying, measuring and broadly communicating the effects of government policies, entrepreneurship and choice on their well-being. To protect the Institute’s independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit www.fraserinstitute.org