Controversial Fraser Institute school rankings released

CTV Vancouver: Public schools show improvement Critics dismiss it as biased and inaccurate; proponents insist it’s fair and useful. However you describe it, the Fraser Institute’s report.

Critics dismiss it as biased and inaccurate; proponents insist it’s fair and useful.

However you describe it, the Fraser Institute’s annual school rankings always stir controversy.

This year, the public policy think tank is deflecting the chief criticism – that the list exists to bolster privatized education – by focusing on success stories among public schools that have risen in the ranks.

Among those is Lord Roberts Elementary in downtown Vancouver, whose score has jumped from 3.6 out of 10 in 2009 to 5.5 last year.

“There’s no group of schools that have a monopoly on improvement. They don’t have to be in the Lower Mainland, they don’t have to serve rich populations of students,” Institute spokesman Peter Cowley said.

That still leaves Lord Roberts ranked 586th out of 982 schools, however, while private schools continue to top the list in disproportionate numbers.

Of the 20 elementary schools that tied for first place with perfect 10s, Cedardale in West Vancouver is the only public school. The top 16 ranked high schools are all privately run.

The rankings are calculated solely based on academic indicators taken from the Foundational Skills Assessment tests, which the B.C. Teachers' Federation has been fighting to have replaced for years.

“It’s not an accurate picture in any way of how effective a school actually is, how effective the programs are,” Vancouver School Board chair Patti Bacchus said.

Many parents and teachers argue the methodology is unfair because public schools can’t cherry pick well-performing students for enrollment.

At Nisga’a, the bottom-ranked elementary school, 44.5 per cent of students are ESL and 11.8 per cent have special needs. The top ranked school, York House, has no ESL students and does not report the number of special needs children.

To read where your local school lands on the rankings, click here for elementary schools and here for high schools.

With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Maria Weisgarber