The annual Report Card on Alberta’s Elementary Schools is out and nine of the 11 Rocky View County schools are above the provincial overall average.
However, Rocky View Schools (RVS) Superintendent of Schools Don Hoium suggests the report carries little weight.
“…Rocky View Schools look to Alberta Education for information on student achievement and school performance, not independent groups such as the Fraser Institute,” he said in an email to Rocky View Weekly.
“We encourage parents and members of the community to do the same.”
The report released by the Fraser Institute on Feb. 15, ranks 782 elementary schools, both anglophone and francophone, public, separate, private and charter schools based on nine academic indicators from results of the annual Provincial Achievement Tests (PATs) administered by Alberta Education to Grade 3 and Grade 6 students. The report also includes information about personal and family characteristic of the schools student base.
The nine academic indicators were: average PAT marks in Grade 3 language arts and math; average PAT marks in Grade 6 language arts, math, science and social studies; percentage of PATs that were below acceptable standard; and the difference between male and female students in their average PAT marks for Grade 6 language arts and math.
Additional information includes the socioeconomic characteristics of each student body, additional language programs (French or English) and percentage of special needs students at each school.
These results were then standardized, weighted and combined to create an overall score out of 10 for each school. The average of all schools was found to be six out of 10.
Bearspaw
Rocky View Schools (RVS) Bearspaw School scored an overall grade of 7.1 and ranked 210 out of the 782 schools province-wide. This grade is down from 2012’s grade of 7.6.
Bearspaw Christian School, a private school, scored an overall grade of eight and ranked in at 90th place. This grade is down from 2012, which saw the school receive a grade of 8.5.
Beiseker
RVS’s Beiseker Community School is one of the two schools in the county that did not rank above the provincial average and scored an overall grade of 4.2, putting the school in 658th place out of 782. The school was not included in the 2012 report.
Chestermere
The Calgary Catholic School District’s (CCSD) Our Lady of Wisdom ranked 138 out of 782 and scored an overall grade of 7.5, up from the 6.5 the school scored on the last report.
St. Gabriel the Archangel from CCSD received an overall grade of 6.2, placing it in the 383rd place. The overall grade increased a point from last year’s 5.2.
Cochrane
Cochrane Christian Academy from RVS ranked 248th and scored an overall grade of 6.9. The school was not included in the 2012 report.
The CCSD’s Holy Spirit Catholic School received an overall grade of 6.5, which is down from 2012’s score of 6.8. The school ranked 335th in the 782 schools.
RVS’ Westbrook School came in with an overall grade of 7.4, which earned the school the 159th place. Though the school was not included in the 2012 report, the 2013 results are down from 2011 when the school scored 7.6.
Indus
Along with Cochrane’s Holy Spirit, Indus Elementary School came in 335th place with an overall grade of 6.5. The overall grade is a significant increase from 2012 when the school scored an overall grade of 2.6.
Kathyrn
RVS’ Kathyrn School received an overall grade of 7.3, placing it in the 173rd position. The overall grade was up from 2012’s 6.8.
Langdon
The second school that received an overall grade below the provincial average is RVS’ Langdon School, which scored an overall grade of 5.5. The grade was up from 2012’s 5.3 but was only enough to place it in 511th place.
According Angela Spanier, director of communication for RVS, RVS would not comment on specific achievements for schools outlined in the report.
The Fraser Institute is a Canadian public policy research and educational organization that does not accept grants or contracts for research from the government.
In order for schools to be included in the report they had to cater to both Grade 3 and Grade 6 students. Several of the RVS elementary schools are kindergarten to Grade 4 or 5 and were therefore not included in the report.
