ON school boards vs Fraser Institute on school rankings
Posted by Sandy on 6th May 2008
It came to my attention recently that the Ontario Public School Board Association (OPSBA) was taking on the Fraser Institute’s (FI) school rankings survey results. Now, keep in mind, OPSBA represents ALL public boards in Ontario — which means that, according to their February 19th, 2008 news release, ALL the public boards in Ontario see the school rankings “as a flawed picture.” Which means that the teachers’ unions and the rank and file also likely see the school rankings in that way.
Why, one could ask, is the FI annual school rankings report flawed? Well, according to the OPSBA news release it is because the FI doesn’t take all the factors affecting student achievement and school life into consideration. Rather, they “create a superficial picture of the place of schools in the lives of children and families.”
What exactly does that statement mean? How does annual literacy and numeracy testing create a superficial picture of student achievement — and thus a superficial picture of our schools in the lives of children and their families? If students are actually completing the tests themselves, are parents not finding out just how well their children can read and write and do basic math? What is superficial about that? Why would children and their families not benefit? Or, is it code to mean that parents have no understanding of what makes a good school apart from the rankings? If that is the case, the assumptions would be wrong on both counts.
That said, OPSBA is correct when they say there are a whole number of factors that influence how effective a school is and what low results might suggest. For example, one school may have one or more special education classes which, when added to the overall statistics of the school, can lower the rankings. Yet, that school may be every bit as good a school as one who has a higher ranking but no special education classes. But, that should not suggest that parents are incapable of understanding these issues.
Posted in Education Topics, Research, Rankings, School Boards | 8 Comments »