With the Fraser Institute’s first “Report Card on Ontario Secondary Schools” receiving flak across the province, many people here are agreeing on one thing–the rankings aren’t fair.
Among the charges are that the report’s criteria focused on the percentage of advanced courses taken–and passed–by grade 11,12, and OAC students, and the percentage of advanced courses, as well as the average number of core course (math, language arts, and sciences), taken per student.
Don McBride, principal of Rainy River High School, noted the problem is this means the focus is just about students going on to university.
“We educate students to complete high school and go from there but for many, university is not their goal–they’re looking at colleges, apprenticeships, and vocational training,” he remarked.
“When you just look at that, you fail to get the bigger picture,” he added.
Rainy River High School, along with Fort Frances High School and Atikokan High School, were not ranked among the 568 schools included in the report because statistics for 1999 were not provided by the Ministry of Education to the marketing firm.
Two Fort High teachers, Owen Johnston and Rudy Zietlhofer, also disagreed with the study’s focus, and noted lumping private and public schools in the same study also didn’t make sense.
“It’s another knock against public schools,” charged Zietlhofer. “A public school is meant to educate everybody. When you compare a small social elite with everyone else, of course they look better.
“And comparing gender gaps as a criteria is ridiculous–seven out of 10 of the private schools were schools for boys and for girls,” he added.
“They’re only reviewing a few specific things. Education is about much more than how many students have taken what OAC courses,” echoed Johnston.
Warren Hoshizaki, director of education for the Rainy River District School Board, was equally direct with his summary of the Fraser Institute’s report.
“We’re glad we’re not ranked under those circumstances,” he said. “We’re trying to improve learning in the kids here, not improve how many kids take and pass advanced course for a better ranking.
“I don’t think anyone would want that.”
Beyond the district, others also are objecting.
“It does not provide an indication of how successful a school may be in providing other programs and services that are also an important to students, parents, and the community,” Rhonda Kimberley-Young, executive officer of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, noted in a press release.
“Using these limited, largely academic indicators, it should come as no surprise that schools with a heavy weighting of advanced level courses in senior grades perform better,” she added.
“School rankings based on standardized tests ignore the essence of education, which is to provide the next generation with a sense of citizenship, ethics, health, confidence, character, aesthetic appreciation and respect for others,” agreed Marilies Rettig, president of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation.
“Furthermore, rankings fail to take into account the socio-economic conditions of the school community as well as the human and financial resources available to the school itself.
“The variation can be enormous from school to school, and from school board to school board,” added Rettig.
The Fraser Institute’s “Ontario Report Card” can be found at www.fraserinstitute.ca
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
