VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The Fraser Institute is out with its annual ranking of the 294 secondary schools across BC, and once again predominantly private and independent schools top the list.
The Institute’s Peter Cowley says within the top 27 in the rankings, only three were public, but there are many schools that are moving up in their report. “A number of them are in the Lower Mainland and they start with Carver Christian in Burnaby, the fastest improving over the last five years,” Cowley tells NEWS 1130.
“Along with Carver Christian there is North Delta Secondary and in Vancouver there’s Eric Hamber, Little Flower Academy, Gladstone, Sir Charles Tupper and Winston Churchill.”
The Fraser Institute’s school rankings aren’t without their critics, many of whom say they favour non-public institutions and the top schools in 2016’s report are indeed all private or independent.
The useless @FraserInstitute‘s #bced rankings are out again. Here’s our response. Share your fave eyeroll! #bcpoli pic.twitter.com/0Yqzfwl8os
— BCTF (@bctf) August 18, 2016
“The list starts off with some schools that have consistently been very high performers,” he explains. “York House, Crofton House, Little Flower and Saint George’s in Vancouver, Collingwood in West Vancouver and Southridge and Relevant in Surrey have constantly been in the top 20.”
The Fraser Institute claims its report card provides parents with information they can’t easily get anywhere else by showing which public and independent secondary schools have improved or fallen behind, based on seven performance indicators derived from province-wide test results.