Centretown’s elementary schools continue to rank poorly compared with other Ontario schools, a finding disputed by critics of the Fraser Institute’s annual report card.
This year, 2,786 schools were ranked based on the performance of Grade 3 and Grade 6 students on provincial standardized tests in 2006-2007.
The tests measure students’ reading, writing and math skills and are administered by the Education Quality and Accountability Office, an arm’s-length agency of the provincial government.
The Fraser Institute, an independent research and educational organization, has been publishing the results for six years.
Elgin Street Public School moved up 130 spots this year to 1,904 from last year’s ranking of 2,034.
However, the number of students who scored below the provincial standard grew to nearly 41 per cent – an increase of more than four percentage points from the year before.
Centennial Public School also improved its ranking by moving to 2,407 from 2,516 last year, an increase of 109 spots. But almost half of the Centennial students’ test scores were below provincial standards.
Another Centretown school, Cambridge Street Community School, was not ranked because of low enrolment.
Despite the lacklustre performances by the schools for the second year in a row, Somerset-Kitchissippi school trustee Jennifer McKenzie said the rankings don’t accurately reflect the quality of education in the schools.
“Some of the best teachers and programs are in our schools where students’ needs are high,” she said.
McKenzie added, however, that she supports standardized testing in the core areas of reading, writing and math because they help educators improve the delivery of quality education.
“What I object to is publishing them and allowing them to be used as an indicator for parents to select schools,” she said. “Parents should also consider whether the school offers a happy, comfortable environment for their child and these things aren’t included in the rankings.”
Maureen Martyn, chair of the Centennial Public School Council and parent of a Grade 3 student at the school, said the Fraser Institute’s rankings fail to take into account the fact that many students at the school don’t speak English as their first language.
“The Fraser Institute is making a judgment on the quality of a school based on students’ performances in only one three-hour block of time,” Martyn said.
She added out that because enrolment at the school is so low – 30 Grade 3 and 32 Grade 6 students – a poor performance by just one student can skew the results.
McKenzie agrees.
“How well a student scores on a standardized test may be the result of a number of different factors such as the type of day the student is having or if they just moved here from another country,” McKenzie said.
But Peter Cowley, director of performance studies at the Fraser Institute and co-author of this year’s report, defended the rankings as useful tools for parents.
“The report card is designed to help parents make more informed choices when they come to choosing a school for their children,” Cowley said.
He said the annual rankings became necessary because of a lack of information about how schools compare with each another. Cowley said he understands that some school administrators and parents would be unhappy with the rankings, but adds that the ultimate goal of the rankings is to help schools identify areas in which they could improve.
“If people don’t agree with it, that’s fine,” Cowley said. “But these scores are not in the Fraser Institute’s power to correct. We simply let the chips fall where they may.”