The Fraser Institute has released its annual ranking of elementary schools in B.C. Eighty of the 100 top-rated performers are private institutions, including seven of the top 10 in Greater Victoria.
A note at the outset about the value of such rankings. The institute’s figures rely heavily on the B.C. Education Ministry’s Foundational Skills Assessment test.
This is only one tool among many for measuring school performance. Its use is controversial, in part because many factors affect outcomes, including family incomes in the surrounding community.
In this respect, it’s often argued that private schools have an unfair advantage, because they charge fees, which makes them more accessible to wealthy parents. Since there is a strong correspondence between family income and academic attainment, private schools have an edge.
So does the institute’s survey support this view? Yes, and no.
Certainly the high rankings gained by select private academies with hefty fees point in this direction. But dig deeper down and a different picture emerges.
First, Catholic schools (classed as private in the survey) did exceptionally well. The third-ranking school in Greater Victoria is Catholic, as are five of the top 15, provincewide. Since there are only 66 Catholic elementary schools in B.C., out of the 944 in the survey, that’s a huge over-representation.
I suppose it’s possible that some parents who send their kids to Catholic schools have higher academic expectations, though you would think faith-based reasons are their main concern. And it’s true Catholic schools do charge fees, though considerably lower than non-denominational academies.
Yet it’s hard to believe this impressive performance is due to these factors alone. For we can take this analysis a step further.
Family incomes aren’t reported in the current survey. But the institute did include average family incomes in its 2013 ranking of elementary schools. These averages are calculated using school catchment zones provided by the Education Ministry, along with census income data.
And the resulting figures suggest it’s unlikely FSA scores, in general, are heavily dependent on family wealth or parental expectations. Let’s look more closely at how two groups of elementary schools in Greater Victoria performed.
The first group all made the top 10 in our region (there are 43 schools in Greater Victoria). St. Andrews — a Catholic school — came 50th in B.C., with average family income in its catchment area of $58,000. Campus View — a public school — came 81st, with incomes averaging $57,900. Frank Hobbs, another public facility, ranked 166th, with an income average of $53,000.
Now compare these with some of the bottom 10 public schools in our region. Since the objective is not to embarrass anyone, but simply to illustrate a point, let’s call these schools A, B, and C.
School A ranked 703rd in B.C., yet family income in that catchment area averaged $61,400. School B came in 803rd, with an average income of $66,600. And school C ranked 838th, with an average income of $60,800.
All of the schools in the second group did markedly worse than those in the first. Yet their family incomes were, on average, as good or better. Money, it seems, isn’t everything.
Staff at the Fraser Institute agree. Their provincewide analysis shows that only 20 to 30 per cent of FSA performance can be tracked to the income of parents or the wealth of the surrounding community.
The variables that remain no doubt include the ability of private academies to choose their pupils. But the strength of the teaching staff, the willingness of administrators to set high expectations and intangibles such as school tradition also play a part.
A well-managed school system encourages these qualities, and when it finds them, makes them public.
