Something is Rank.

It’s that time of year again, when a Canadian organization releases their annual school rankings and various media outlets publish these findings as if they were factual.  Other than a sentence or two that the local teacher’s federation or other educational organization “is critical of the rankings”, they are very rarely scrutinized by the media and get published as if the annual release was objective data.  Sound bite media makes for a good headline and requires very little thinking. The organization that produces the rankings has offices in Calgary, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver and exists primarily from tax-deductible donations from patrons.  They also have a clear bias and their mission is promoting “a prosperous world where individuals benefit from greater choice and competitive markets.”   As aggressive advocates for choice, they promote independent schools and argue that they are better by consistently “ranking” them ahead of public schools. 

Using the most recent international data, most public schools in British Columbia are doing very well and overwhelmingly, kids attend and engage in their learning to the best of their ability.   To “rank” public and independent schools using the same criteria produces results that are invalid, unreliable and incomplete.   According to this organization, the top 20 schools in B.C. are ALL independent schools. Only two of these "top 10" schools had a Grade 12 enrolment over 100 and the 11th ranked school in B.C. had a graduating class of 17 students. The annual list includes schools that screen student applicants and only accept learners if their entrance test results, gender and/or ability to pay the tuition fees meet the standard. The top ranked school in British Columbia is an exclusive, girls-only institution with a Grade 12 enrolment of 64 students.   The tuition at this school is greater than $18,000 per year.  Families can expect to pay at least $250,000 in tuition and school fees to have their child attend this school from kindergarten to graduation. Secondary school applicants write a 2-hour math/problem-solving, reading and writing entrance exam and most then sit for an interview.  If you do not meet the standards, you do not get in.  The school reports zero English as a Second Language (ESL) learners and no students with special needs or learning challenges.   I am confident that this is an outstanding school with great traditions; however, you cannot use the same criteria to compare and rank schools that put in multiple measures to exclude some children with public schools that welcome and accept all learners. 

To be clear, this is not about making excuses for public schools.  I work at an outstanding public secondary school and our highest achieving students can and do perform as well or better than the top students from any school, anywhere. More importantly, we help all of our learners achieve success at impressive rates. Last year, 262 Grade 12 students from diverse cultural, socio-economic and language backgrounds attended our school and our graduation rate was 96.8%.  In 2012, the average Grade Point Average of our graduating students was 3.18, or in the 95^th percentile of the province.   64.1% of the 2012 class graduated with honours (defined by the Ministry of Education as a GPA greater than 3.0) and the Provincial average, including all independent and public schools, showed 49% of grads achieving honours standing. Our students also extend themselves into the school, local and global communities in a rich variety of ways.  They engage in arts, music, theatre, woodwork and metal shops, clubs, athletic teams, choirs, bands and in a myriad of positive leadership events in increasing numbers.  Although completely optional, over 75% of our students reported that they participate in activities outside of class sometimes, most of the time or all of the time. Most of our grads go directly to top universities and colleges or transition into the world of work and continue to succeed in the years ahead.  

The admissions offices at both the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University have stated that they do not differentiate between public school and private school applicants and U.B.C. math professor George Bluman has tracked the results of first year math and physics students for a number of years and found that public school students typically outperform students graduating from private schools. He suggests that private school students get a lot of support as the school’s have a vested interest in results and the independence required of first year university students presents a greater transition for some.  Research has demonstrated that public school graduates do as well or better at university than private school graduates, including so-called university-prep schools.  This is an important part of the public school mandate, however, it is not our only job.  We also help all learners find a pathway to success in the future, at a variety of post-secondary institutions, apprenticeships and careers.   

The self-proclaimed “think tank” organization that generates the rankings believes that schools should compete with one another, as this is the cornerstone of effectiveness. I am not opposed to competition and, indeed, I am generally a competitive person.  It has a place in our society and this paradigm is the norm in the business world. However, competition creates haves and have-nots and winners and losers.  The United States of America is one of the most competitive, free market societies on the planet, and the struggling state of public education in many American jurisdictions is well documented. The education of children should not be operated on a competitive business model where we accept that some will succeed while others will not.  High quality education that is accessible to all is an investment in the future of our democratic society.  

All school’s achievement results should be published and available to everyone.  Holding schools accountable for how kids are doing is important and the data on student learning should be shared with parents and used by educators to plan for improvement.  Results and school data should be presented objectively and the public can draw their own conclusions. As soon as you "rank" schools, the data becomes irrelevant, even when the differences between a so-called top and lower ranked school are only a percentage point or two.   Certainly, you cannot reliably rank schools that have limited enrolment and only accept certain students using the same criteria as schools that accept all learners.  Finally, all schools are so much more than a narrow band of results on five provincial exams, including three that students write in Grade 10.  There are many excellent independent schools and they offer a different education, but not a better one.  The very future of a healthy democracy in a diverse, pluralistic society relies on sustaining excellent public schools.  Schools have a primary responsibility to nurture the cognitive abilities of young people to increase their life chances.   However, our role is not merely creating a "prosperous world where individuals benefit", but also in building a democratic nation of socially responsible and engaged citizens.  Canadian public schools are a reflection of our society: vibrant, multicultural mosaics of people from many lands and socioeconomic backgrounds. Young, educated citizens from Canadian public schools will be advantaged in our increasingly diverse and interconnected world.  Indeed, strong economies of the future will rely on a work force that can communicate, think, problem solve and work collaboratively with women and men from around the globe.   What better place for students to gain this experience than by engaging and learning with a broad range of other youth in a diverse, high achieving public school?

p.s. this same think tank has also regularly disputed climate change at the same time as they accepted large donations from corporations like Exxon and the oil friendly Koch Foundation.