The Fraser Institute released its annual – and controversial – elementary school rankings on the morning of February 6, and once again North Coast schools are largely in the bottom half of the rankings.
Annunciation, the lone independent school in the Prince Rupert School District, was the only one to perform well, placing 81st out of the 860 schools included in the ranking. The school jumped 14 spots from its 95th place ranking based on the last five years, but the ranking out of 10 was down from 9.1 last year to 8.4 in 2011.
All of the public schools in the Prince Rupert School District were in the bottom half of the rankings. The highest school in the rankings, ironically, is the now closed Westview elementary. Westview finished in 655th place with a ranking of 4.7 out of 10. The school's five year rank was 503 out of 725.
Pineridge was the next best performing public school, placing 787 out of 860, with its five year rank being 651 out of 725. The school had a score of 3.6 out of 10 in 2011, the second lowest in the past five years. Lax Kxeen was next with a rank of 830 out of 860 and a score of 2.7 out of 10, tied for the lowest in five years. The five year average ranking for the school was 671 out of 725 schools.
Conrad, which this year took the students from Westview, finished with a score of 1.3 out of 10, the worst in five years, and a ranking of 853 out of 860. The school has typically been near the bottom of the rankings, with the five year ranking at 720 out of 725.
The only Haida Gwaii elementary school included was Sk'aadgaa Naay in Skidegate, which ranked 436 out of 860 with a score of 5.9, the second highest in the past five years.
The scores are based on the averagescore for grade four and grade seven reading, writing and numeracy, the gap in scores between male and female scores, the number of test scores “below expectation” and the per cent of tests not written. The entire report can be found online at www.compareschoolrankings.org