By Marie Nyhus
Centretown elementary schools are well below average in Eastern Ontario, a result parents say is based on an unreliable test.
According to the Fraser Institute, an independent public policy think-tank that provides the annual school rankings, Elgin Street and Centennial public schools fell to the bottom of the pack.
The rankings are based on data from the institute’s education quality and accountability office test, which averages reading, writing and mathematics skills of students in Grades 3 and 6.
But the school communities are critical of how they are being compared on the list, saying rankings based on EQAO results provide an over-simplified picture.
“A lot of variables are not taken into account here,” says Brenda Martin, principal at Centennial public school.
“It doesn’t tell you whether the instruction in the test was done in the students’ first language, and it is not taken into consideration that children in different neighbourhoods come from very different backgrounds.”
Centennial was ranked as 2,516 out of 2,812 public schools in the province.
Bruce Hubbard, principal of Elgin Street public school, which dropped from 668 to 2,034 in the ranking, agrees.
“I think the ranking provides a very incomplete picture of what a school does. Does it reflect that we work with critical thinking and problem solving as well? No.”
Hubbard doesn’t have any specific explanation for the school’s drop but points out that diversity within the school affects testing differently from year to year.
“I will never, ever, base a school planning on this ranking,” he says. “But I will go through the data with my staff and ask critical questions. This is something we do every year and our board is really good at that.”
The lower ranking also raised the interest of Somerset-Kitchissippi school trustee Jennifer McKenzie, although she expects the schools are doing fine.
“I certainly am interested in knowing why the school dropped in the ranking, but these results don’t raise any alarm bells. I know both schools to be excellent and I wouldn’t worry as a parent,” she says.
A third Centretown elementary school, Cambridge Street community school, was also ranked in the report as 1,464, an improvement over last year’s place at 2,109.
McKenzie doesn’t approve of comparing schools on the basis of standardized tests.
“These tests are an indication of how well students are doing at a particular time, and they might deliver an idea of where schools can adjust their delivering or teaching methodology. But I think it’s unfair to compare schools this way and for parents to shop around from school to school on this basis,” she says.
Parents don’t seem too concerned about the test results either, tending to rely more on their personal experience with their neighbourhood schools than on the results of a standardized test.
“[Centennial public school] has a great teaching staff and an inclusive, multicultural environment,” says Susan Derby, mother of a Grade 6 student and member of the school council.
“I am not even sure that the parents in the district are aware of these results. I think the word of mouth within the local population has a much greater influence when parents decide where to send their children.”
Albert Galpin, father of four children who have attended Elgin Street school, agrees.
“My kids have gone to that school since 1993. I have seen these reports come and go and the result go up and down like a yo-yo. The results provide a snap-shot of a particular grade, but I tend to take them with a heavy grain of salt,” Galpin says.
He noted the school is fairly small and with just one class of each grade, the performance of a single child can affect the final result significantly.
“What these tests don’t tell you is that Elgin Street public school has the lowest incidence of bullying and students from four different ethnic groups,” he says.
“I would rather have my children going to school in an enviroment of tolerance than in a school that has the highest score in these tests.”