School Rankings
St. Margaret's School Is Number One?
The Fraser Institute's annual ranking of the schools is out. I have just one question. How is it that the number one school in the province is granted to a school that has been threatened with losing their accreditation over their marking system? A pattern over many years has emerged that their grade 12 students all too frequently score 30% lower on their provincial exams than their submitted class average. They have pretty much been accused of selling their marks. Hey, as a parent if you were paying between $12,000 and $18,000 a year wouldn't you expect your kid to have the marks needed to get into university? The school tried to blame the discrepancy on their International ESL students.
The Fraser Institute rankings are based in large part on the Foundation Skills Assessment tests administered to Grade 4 and 7. There have been wide-spread rumours that the school tells the weaker students not to show up on the day of the testing. Absent students are not taken into account in the overall scoring. The Department for the Ministry of Education announced at this year's teacher's conference that they are looking into closing this loophole.
I just happen to think awarding a school with questionable practices the number one ranking beyond ridiculous.
It's also probably ridiculous to end a rant with flowers but I am.
21 comments:
The practices at that school certainly sound sketchy to me.
And it is never ridiculous to end a rant with flowers. In fact all rants should end in flowers.
They along with two other exclusive schools in BC were all over the papers last year when it was discovered all three were being threatened with loss of accreditation. It's not the first time for any of them but I think finally the ministry is fed up.
A rant with flowers is one of the big reasons I adore you my friend!
That ranking does sound quite fishy!
Mellowlee, two of the three schools that were in trouble with the Ministry of Education are in Vancouver. Every year the ranking of the schools comes under fire. Supposedly it's done to see how British Columbian students are doing compared to the rest of the world.
well...at least they aren't cat pictures
Kelly, no kidding. I decided I had better lay off the cat photos for a post or two! Fear not, they'll be back.
That last flower pic is great! :]
In our city, Lindsay's old school is ranked number one and that just baffles me. I know so many students that are struggling there and three of her friends have just gone through what she has and have not been attending.
Your flower pics are phenomenal. I really think they should be on a calendar or something.
You need to post the pictures of the flowers first, because I get lulled into a haze after viewing all the pretty colours, coherent thought leaves my mind.
;)
Hey, thanks dogboy. (I can't get used to your new name!)
Deb, ranking schools is such a tricky thing because so much of the time the data used is skewed.
Allison, it was probably my writing that left you in a haze of incoherent thought :)
I used to live in England where they were so School-League-Table nuts that gov't funding was based on ranking. So schools would disallow certain students from taking exams so as not the skew the results.
These tools gave politicians and ideological think tanks something to thump their chests with. But did it improve education? No.
That said, there is an argument for some kind of a measurement tool to keep schools relevant and prepare students to think creatively about the coming problems of the 21st century - the end of oil, for example.
Modern education is based on an industrial revolution model - training kids to meet outcomes so they are ready to follow order in modern-day "factories " - offices, malls, universities.
Meanwhile teachers and schools are expected to be social workers but are under-resourced and cannot meet the high expectations.
Buildings are falling down around the kids' ears.(At least in our poor little province)
We don't need quantitative comparative measurement tools from think tanks. We need is innovation about our education model. Kids face huge challenges and we are letting them down with our outmoded education models and stupid measurement tools.
I am so disillusioned.
Gifted Typist, I am often disillusioned by the system and the curriculum but I am constantly amazed and enriched and by my individual students.
I actually believe in the provincial exams although I would certainly change their format but I do think they offer a level playing field. With the kind of work I do I really see the discrepancy between what is demanded and expected of students depending on their individual teachers.
Can you handle yet another tag? I just tagged you.
I like the concept of ending rants with flowers. I like to laugh after a good rant. Cleanses me and lets others know I'm still approachable even though I was royally pissed a few moments ago.
I like the concept of ending rants with flowers. I like to laugh after a good rant. Cleanses me and lets others know I'm still approachable even though I was royally pissed a few moments ago.
A couple comments (hi, by the way, long time no visit your page).
The Fraser Institute rankings are lame. I don't think they measure squat. You and me both took enough Stat classes to know you can make stats say anything (especially for schools that can afford to bring those stats up wink, wink, nudge, nudge).
I don't know if I'm such a big fan of the grade 10 math provincial. I find I teach way to much to that test. I feel it puts a lot of pressure on me to make sure that my kid's scores will match their course grade. I hate the fact that 2 hours has a 20% effect on my kids. One kid last year, got so flustered with the second question that he (an A student) decided he could fail the provincial and still pass the course so he made a zigzag patter on his scantron sheet. I was livid with him, but that was his choice and statement about the provincial.
Marna,
In quebec right now thinking of our nice time often. Sophie visits Quebec city for an evening this weekend and next weekend I am in Montreal with the whole gang.
Hope your well!!!
Hi tc!
Hope everything's ok with you & your family.
You're in my thoughts.
:)
You don't know anybody missing a foot, eh? Where are you?????
Hey, my lovely blogger-- you've been given an award...
Oh yeah-- http://johnnyyen.blogspot.com/2008/08/taking-care-of-tag-by-skylers-dad.html
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