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Grand Forks Secondary School listed as fast-improving by Fraser Institute, SD51 says it's still against school rankings

While the Fraser Institute has GFSS listed as one of the fastest improving secondary schools, officials are still against rankings.
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Grand Forks Secondary School

While the Fraser Institute has Grand Forks Secondary School (GFSS) listed as one of the fastest improving secondary schools in B.C., officials are still against school rankings.

According to the right-wing think tank, GFSS is ranked eighth out of 26 high schools in the province in terms of significant academic performance improvement over the past five years.

The local high school also ranked 133 out 284 in this year’s Fraser Institute secondary school report card rankings after placing 181 out of 280 last year.

GFSS scored 4.7 out of 10 in 2008 and 4.2 the next year but subsequently, it scored a 5.6, a 5.4 and a 6.1 in 2012.

Amongst the items factored into the scores, average exam mark, percentage of exams failed, school vs. exam mark difference, English and math gender gaps, graduation rates and delayed advancement rate.

“The Fraser Institute doesn't tell the whole story about what a school provides for its students,” said GFSS principal Scott Stewart. “I'm proud of the work our staff does not only to encourage student achievement but to support students in graduating and achieving a well-rounded education.”

Teresa Rezansoff, chair of the SD51 board of education and president of the B.C. School Trustees Association, and the school board echoed Stewart’s sentiments.

“Our response is that rankings do not tell the entire story,” explained Rezansoff. “There is much more to school and student success than what the Fraser Institute uses to determine its rankings. We are proud of the work that is done in all of our schools, the dedication of our staff and the achievements of our students.”

Norm Sabourin, president of the Boundary District Teachers’ Association (BDTA), said the teacher’s union is completely against the Fraser Institute’s school report cards, as it is not an accurate depiction.

“The amazing staff at every school in our district provides excellent service to students so any ‘snapshot’ assessment by the Fraser Institute does not reflect the quality of our schools or student achievement in any variety of areas,” Sabourin said. “Has anyone considered assessing the Fraser Institute in its ability to provide meaningful research results? In my humble opinion, I would say it does not meet expectations.”

Peter Cowley, the Fraser Institute’s director of school performance studies disagrees with the comments from SD51.

“This is objective information with regard to how individual schools are doing in academics,” Cowley said. “We provide five years of data so that anyone that wishes – be they parents or educators and we have both visiting our site – can see how a school is doing over time. In addition, we have a trend measure that shows you clearly, on any one of the indicators, as well as the overall rating out of 10, whether the change is what we call statistically significant, i.e. that it’s real change and not just random fluctuation from year to year. These things can’t be found anywhere else.”

Boundary Central Secondary School scored a 5.1 out of 10 and ranked 213 out of 284 in this year’s report..

In the elementary school rankings, Hutton Elementary School scored a 6.9 out of 10 this year and ranked 252 out of 853 while Perley Elementary scored 5.2 and ranked 558 out of 853.



Karl Yu

About the Author: Karl Yu

After interning at Vancouver Metro free daily newspaper, I joined Black Press in 2010.
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