Both Bonnyville Centralized High School and Notre Dame High School tied for 228th spot out of 272 schools on the 2010 Alberta high schools report card by the Fraser Institute, a ranking not sitting well with administrators from the respective divisions.
Bernadette Provost, superintendent for Lakeland Catholic School District, said she doesn't put much stock in the report. She said social and economic factors could affect the ranking system, which focuses on provincial exam test scores.
“It doesn't always identify all the information that's needed,” she said. “It's data without information.”
The Fraser Institute report shows BCHS's average diploma exam mark at 59 per cent for 2008-2009. NDHS's average exam mark fell at 58.1 per cent. The report noted that 30 per cent of exams were failed at BCHS, with NDHS not far behind with 28.1 per cent of exams failed.
“It looks at a fairly narrow slice of achievement in terms of what percentage of students are taking strictly academic courses and how they perform in those courses,” NLSD Supt. Roger Nippard said.
“I could very easily raise my ranking on the Fraser Institute report by being very restrictive in terms of the choices that I provide students. I could limit the students that write PATs.”
He said while the division encourages students to take more rigorous courses, a high percentage of students enrol in Registered Apprentice Program and work experience programs.
Roy Ripkens, NLSD assistant superintendent for student services, said schools with high entrance requirements are likely to rank high. He added that evaluating a school's performance only by provincial exam marks didn't accurately reflect the achievement of a school.
“It's just patently not good research practice. Alberta Education has a very comprehensive accountability framework, and that includes a bigger picture and far more rankings.”
Ripkens said the 2010 Accountability and Pillar summary by Alberta Education better reflects the division's education achievement. The evaluation measures 16 areas, including program studies, dropout rates, and high school completion rates in addition to provincial achievement tests and diploma exams.
The evaluation also considers whether students are prepared to enter the workforce and whether they are good citizens.
“[The Fraser Institute report] basically pulls this one thing out and then compares the whole province. Alberta Education takes a look at a much bigger picture,” Ripkens said.
Alberta Education evaluates through a combination of exam marks and surveys of parents, students, and teachers. The division uses the data to put together its three-year plan, which it updates annually.
Another difference is that the Fraser Institute works with Grade 12 exam scores for individual schools, while Alberta Education evaluation measures school divisions across the province. Alberta Education, however, doesn't rank schools.
The student learning outcomes category indicates the NLSD board has concerns from the provincial achievement testing results. The percentage of students in grades 3, 6, and 9 who achieved the acceptable standard on PATs for the 2008-2009 year was 68.1 per cent. The percentage of students who achieved the acceptable standard on diploma exams for the same period was 74.5 per cent, down from a three-year average of 80.6 per cent.
The division also fell below the provincial average dropout rate with 6.5 per cent of NLSD students dropping out, versus an average rate of 4.3 per cent for the province. High school completion in three years was measured at 64.2 per cent for NLSD, whereas the province's average three-year completion rate for high school was 71.5 per cent. The Accountability and Pillar statement also noted 38 per cent of students in NLSD wrote four or more diploma exams, versus an average of 53.5 per cent across the province.
The report measured the transition rate of students within six years of Grade 10 to post-secondary education at a high 56.2 per cent.
Over 80 per cent of NLSD students, teachers, and parents surveyed said their school had improved or stayed the same in the last three years.