Vancouver school board asks Fraser Institute to stop rankings

The Vancouver school board issued the following statement today (January 30):

The Vancouver Board of Education is opposed to the misuse of the data collected from the Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) tests to rank schools in British Columbia.

The testing of reading, writing and numeracy through the FSA produces data that represent a snapshot of student achievement in relation to particular areas of the provincial curriculum.

The basis for the ranking is limited to two curriculum areas—Language Arts and Mathematics—in two grade levels. Any valid ranking that proposes to assess schools against one another would have to take into account a much broader range of curriculum areas, as well as many other factors that contribute to the meaningful aspects of schools.

Further, the ranking of schools produces an invalid impression of winners and losers. Such ranking fails to recognize or respect the diversity of individual capacity, interest, aptitude and achievement that distinguishes our students, their schools and communities. Our core purpose as a school district is to ensure the highest quality of learning experiences for all students in all settings. This effort is negatively and unjustly affected by a practice that every year focuses undue attention on test performance, and diminishes and degrades large segments of our student population.

The Report Card, according to the Fraser Institute, is a tool created to “assist parents when they choose a school for their children.” While the Fraser Institute cautions parents to consider other factors in their choice, the ranking of schools diverts attention from the critical questions about learning.

We believe, for these reasons, that the practice followed by the Fraser Institute is damaging to students and undermines the goals of public education. We also find the Report Card’s ranking of schools so narrow and invalid that it defeats its stated purpose. It seriously misleads rather than assists parents in choosing a school for their children.

We urge parents and members of the public to disregard the Fraser Institute’s ranking of schools. Instead, we encourage parents and members of the public to make contact with the schools themselves, and the parents, students and staff members in those schools with questions about the quality of experience, performance and achievement. Finally, we appeal to the Fraser Institute to act responsibly by discontinuing its practice of ranking schools.