Fraser Institute's BC Elementary School Rankings Show Which Schools Improving, Falling Behind in Academics

VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - April 03, 2016) - The Fraser Institute today published its annual British Columbia elementary school rankings, showing how schools have performed academically and which schools across the province have improved or fallen behind.

The Report Card on British Columbia's Elementary Schools 2016 ranks 944 public and independent elementary schools based on 10 academic indicators derived from the provincewide Foundation Skills Assessments (FSA) results.

"Our report card is the only objective, reliable tool that parents have to compare the academic performance of their child's school over time and to that of other schools in their community," said Peter Cowley, Fraser Institute director of school performance studies. 

According to the rankings, 50 schools across the province showed significant improvement over the past five years: Devon Gardens, a public school in Delta, is the fastest improving school in B.C., followed by George Jay (Victoria), Alex Aitken (Duncan), St. Andrew's (Vancouver), and Senator Reid (Surrey).

Of the 50 schools that showed significant improvement, 45 are public schools.

"When parents see the report card's objective evidence that a school's results are consistently low or declining, they often become very effective advocates for improvement," Cowley said.

"Every year, every school in the province must find ways to improve student results -- it's as simple as that."

Other findings from this year's rankings include:

•  80 per cent of the top 100 ranked schools are independent schools
• On average, independent schools achieved a rating of 8.2 (out of 10) while public schools averaged just 5.6.
• West Vancouver and Richmond have the highest ranking public schools:

(Average ratings were only calculated for cities with at least five public schools in the report card.)

For detailed results of all 944 schools, go to www.compareschoolrankings.org where you can quickly see how a school performed over the past five years and how it compares to other schools.

Peter Cowley is available for media interviews, from Vancouver, on Sunday and Monday.

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The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal and ties to a global network of think-tanks in 87 countries. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for Canadians, their families and future generations by studying, measuring and broadly communicating the effects of government policies, entrepreneurship and choice on their well-being. To protect the Institute's independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit www.fraserinstitute.org