By Kelvin Gawley
A report card ranking elementary schools in B.C. has once more put private schools on top, standardized testing in the spotlight, and teachers in opposition.
The annual report from the Fraser Institute gives 944 schools a rating out of 10 and ranks them from best to worst. Abbotsford's 28 private and public schools included in the rankings had an average score of 6.9, with MEI on top with a score of 8.8 and Alexander lowest at 4.8.
Five independent schools ranked in the top 10 for Abbotsford schools, with MEI in first, St. James and St. Ann's in second, and Dasmesh Punjabi in fourth. King Traditional and Abbotsford Christian took the eighth and ninth spots locally with 7.8 and 7.7 scores respectively.
The highest ranking public school was Bradner, which had the third-highest score in Abbotsford and came in 82nd provincially.
Our response to the @FraserInstitute's #bced rankings. #bcpoli pic.twitter.com/lKpM0OqO2O
— BCTF (@bctf) April 3, 2016
The report doesn't actually portray poor performance on the part of schools and teachers, according to the B.C. Teachers Federation, whose representatives say that the ranking system relies too heavily on a single standardized test. According to Press Progress, a left-wing rival think tank to the conservative Fraser Institute, the report card is part of a "communications agenda" to erode trust in the public school system and build support for more privatized education.