Last week, the Fraser Institute published its annual report card on Alberta elementary schools, potentially for the last time as the Alberta government looks into changing province-wide testing.
The Report Card on Alberta’s Elementary Schools 2012 rates 665 public, private, separate, charter, and Francophone elementary schools across the province based on nine indicators using data from the annual Provincial Achievement Tests (PAT), mandated by Alberta Education.
According to Peter Cowley, Fraser Institute director of school performance studies, the report card includes contextual information about each school, including parents’ average income, the percentage of English as a Second Language (ESL) students, and the percentage of special needs students.
“Our report card is the only objective, reliable tool that shows which schools across Alberta have improved, or fallen behind, in terms of math, science, social studies, and language arts over the past five years,” said Cowley.
Airdrie’s schools rank fairly low on the list with Airdrie Koinonia Christian School ranking at 157/665 and rating a 7.3 out of 10. Ralph McCall and Airdrie Francophone both ranked at 325/665, with a rating of 6.2. Good Shepherd ranked 475/665, with a rating of 5.1 and Our Lady Queen of Peace ranked 521/665, with a rating of 4.6.
Rocky View Schools’ (RVS) Superintendent Greg Bass said he does not consider the report card an accurate depiction of schools’ performance because it only takes one element of learning into consideration.
“I don’t consider it a valid measure because it does not represent all the work teachers are putting into it and the learning that is taking place,” he said.
“The assessment needs to reflect the way children are learning and a paper and pencil test does not do that. The Fraser Institute report is not a complete view of what is happening.”
He said Alberta Education’s Accountability Pillar is a much more effective measure of the progress of schools because it takes a number of aspects into consideration such as transition rates, scholarship rates and survey data from parents and students.
A number of Airdrie schools were not included in the report because of grade configurations, Bass added. For the Fraser Institute report, data is drawn from grades 3 and 6 and some Airdrie elementary schools are K-4.
Bass said another inconsistency in the report is the fact that RVS accepts all students and some private schools select which students they accept.
“We are strong advocates of public educations,” he said.
“Strong schools build strong communities and strong communities build strong schools. We embrace all learners and that’s an important distinction.”
According to Cowley, the 20 Alberta elementary schools showing the fastest academic improvement over the past five years include nine public schools where parental incomes are below average. At one of these schools, ESL students account for 86.3 per cent of the total student population; at another, 44.3 per cent of students are special needs.
“This shows that academic excellence is possible in every school, regardless of the personal and family circumstances of its student population,” Cowley said.
Thomas Lukaszuk, Alberta’s minister of education, said the Fraser Institute report does not give parents a good understanding of the work that goes on in schools.
“PATs are tests that are specifically designed to measure narrow aspects of the Alberta curriculum,” he said.
“It is not reflective of the quality of teaching or the quality of learning in our schools. It is like using a thermometer to measure distance.”
Lukaszuk has included a review of PATs in a 10-point plan for education. The review will be launched by spring 2012, and provincial tests will continue for students in grades 3, 6 and 9 until the review is complete.
Bass said the Rocky View Schools’ board of trustees supports the review of PATs.
“I am not saying they are not of value but we need to look at a more holistic approach with an ongoing assessment of the progress of students throughout the year,” he said. “Our classrooms allow creativity and innovation in learning and that is becoming more at odds with a exam at the end of the year. We hope the tests will become one tool rather than the only tool to measure the performance of schools.”
Full results of the Fraser Institute report card are available at alberta.compareschoolrankings.org
