Letter: Report card on schools not the whole story

Re: Fraser Insititute’s annual report card grades schools across Ontario

The annual Fraser Institute’s report card does not paint the whole picture. Only 45 per cent of an elementary school’s ranking, and only 25 per cent of a high school’s, comes from the test.

Other indicators of the ranking come from the number of students who did not write the test, and the difference between girls’ and boys’ achievements.

University of Victoria professor Helen Raptis points out using this calculation artificially depresses the ranking for lower socio-economic schools, while propping up the ranking of higher socio-economic schools and single-gender schools, where this indicator is not a factor.

A third indicator is graduation and delayed advancement rates. By including this in the ranking, it does not acknowledge the impacts of socio-economic status, special needs or English-as-a-second-language learners.

The Fraser Institute believes education should be private, so it is not surprising when they find ways to bolster private, single-gendered schools. One example of this is in British Columbia; a Torquay (public) elementary school scored higher on the actual test, but ranked lower on the report card than the students at Pacific Christian (independent) school.

There is nothing wrong with ranking schools, but at least be transparent about what it is that you are ranking.

Linda Ecclestone
Sudbury