The test results are in and the Fraser Institute has compiled its ranking of the academic performances of Alberta’s 812 elementary schools.
“It is one of the few things that is widely available that compares one school to another on seven different academic indicators,” explained Peter Cowley, Fraser Institute director of school performance studies. “When you find schools that are doing well, or doing better than expected, based on the characteristics of their students than this (information) is extraordinarily valuable.”
Alberta's public, separate, francophone, private and charter schools are ranked using a formula based on provincial test results.
“Educators, ministry of education officials, school board officials and everyone else interested in improvement should be very, very happy about this report.“
Cowley says the recent success stories of a number of Calgary schools, including Keeler, Rosscarrock, Riverbend, Glenbrook and Capitol Hill, begs the question why.
“What are they doing that other schools could do?” asks Cowley. “Let’s find the schools that are doing a better job and let’s see if they can teach the schools that are, as yet, less successful.”
According to Cowley, the compiled data allows parents an opportunity to compare results when selecting which school their child will attend or to ask questions of their child’s current educators.
To see the complete rankings, visit Report Card on Alberta’s Elementary Schools 2016.
