Studies in FRASER Education Policy I N S T I T U T E Report Card on Alberta’s Elementary Schools 2018 by Peter Cowley and Stephen Easton COMPARESchoolRankings.ORG Contents Introduction / 3 Key academic indicators of school performance / 5 Other indicators of school performance / 7 Notes / 8 Detailed school reports / 9 How does your school stack up? / 70 Appendix: Calculating the Overall rating out of 10 / 78 About the authors / 80 Publishing information / 81 Supporting the Fraser Institute / 82 Purpose, funding, & independence / 82 About the Fraser Institute / 83 Editorial Advisory Board / 84 2 Introduction The Report Card on Alberta’s Elementary Schools 2018 each school’s academic outcomes that is not easily (hereafter, Report Card) reports a variety of relevant, available elsewhere. Naturally, a sound academic objective indicators of school performance. These program should be complemented by effective pro- indicators are used to calculate an overall rating for grams in areas of school activity not measured by each school. On the basis of this rating, the schools the Report Card. are ranked. The Report Card brings all of this infor- mation together in one easily accessible public docu- ment so that anyone can analyze and compare the The Report Card facilitates performance of individual schools. By doing so, the school improvement Report Card assists parents when they choose a school for their children and encourages and assists all those Certainly, the act of publicly rating and ranking seeking to improve their school. schools attracts attention. Schools that perform well or show consistent improvement are applauded. The results of poorly performing schools generate concern, The Report Card can as do those of schools whose performance is deterio- help parents choose rating. This inevitable attention provides an incentive for all those connected with a school to focus on In Alberta, many parents enjoy considerable choice student results. regarding the school in which they will enroll their However, the Report Card offers more than incen- children. Where choice is available, the Report Card tive: it includes a variety of indicators, each of which provides a valuable decision-making tool. Because reports results for an aspect of school perfor mance that it makes comparisons easy, the Report Card alerts might be improved. School administra tors who are parents to nearby schools that appear to have more dedicated to improvement accept the Report Card as effective academic programs. Further, parents can another source of opportunities for positive change. determine whether schools of interest are improving over time. By first studying the Report Card, parents Some schools do better than others will be better prepared to ask relevant questions Knowing that a school’s results require improvement when they interview the principal and teachers at the is the first step. However, to improve a school, one schools they are considering. must believe that improvement is achievable. This Of course, the choice of a school should not be Report Card provides evidence about what can be made solely on the basis of a single source of informa- accomplished. It demonstrates clearly that, even when tion. A tour of each school of interest and an inter- we take into account factors such as the students’ view with the principal can be useful. Parents who family and personal characteristics, some schools do already have a child enrolled at the school provide better than others. This finding confirms the results another point of view. of research carried out in other countries.1 It will The Report Card provides a detailed picture of come as no great surprise to experienced parents and 3 4 Report Card on Alberta’s Elementary Schools 2018 educators that the data consistently suggest that what can see if the school is improving. Reference to overall goes on in the schools makes a difference to academic provincial results places an individual school’s level of results and that some schools make more of a differ- achievement in a broader context. ence than others. There is great benefit in identifying schools that are particularly effective. By studying the techniques Comparisons are at the heart used in schools where students are successful, less of the improvement process effective schools may find ways to improve. Many elementary-school authorities in Alberta pro- Comparisons are at the heart of improvement: vide students and their parents with report cards that making comparisons among schools is made simpler include both the student’s mark and the median mark and more meaningful by the Report Card’s indicators, for each subject in which the student is enrolled. The ratings, and rankings. report cards also show any marks awarded to the student earlier in the year. Comparative and histori- cal data like these enable students and parents to see You can contribute to the a clearer picture of an individual student’s progress. development of the Report Card By comparing a school’s results with those of neigh- bouring schools or of schools with similar school and The Report Card program benefits from the input student characteristics, we can identify more suc- of interested parties. We welcome your suggestions, cessful schools and learn from them. By comparing comments, and criticisms. Please contact co-author a school’s latest results with those of earlier years, we Peter Cowley, at [email protected]. Key academic indicators of school performance The foundation of the Report Card is an overall rat- Indicators of effective teaching ing of each school’s academic performance. Building on data about student results provided by Alberta Average achievement-test marks Education (the provincial ministry of education), we These indicators (in the tables Avg test mark) report the rate each school on a scale from zero to 10. Because average percentage achieved by a school’s students on the Alberta’s ministry of education has not released any uniform achievement tests in four core subject areas. For grade 3 province-wide test results since 2012-2013, each school, each indicator is the average score (expressed we base our overall rating of each school’s academic as a percentage) achieved by all of the school’s students performance on seven indicators: who completed the tests in language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies at the grade-6 level. (1) average achievement-test marks Examinations are designed to achieve a distribu- (percent) in grade-6 language arts; tion of results reflecting the differences in students’ mastery of this course work. Differences among (2) average achievement-test marks students in abilities, motivation, and work-habits will (percent) in grade-6 mathematics; inevitably have some impact upon the final results. (3) average achievement-test marks There are, however, recognizable differences from (percent) in grade-6 science; school to school within a district in the average results on the achievement tests. There is also variation with- (4) average achievement-test marks in schools in the results obtained in different subject (percent) in grade-6 social studies; areas. Such differences in outcomes cannot be wholly (5) the percentage of achievement tests explained by the individual and family characteristics in (1) to (4) where the results were of the school’s students. It seems reasonable, there- below the acceptable standard; fore, to include the average test marks in these critical (6) the difference between male and female subject areas as indicators of effective teaching. students in their average achievement- Percentage of achievement tests failed test mark in grade-6 language arts; For each school, this indicator (in the tables Percentage (7) the difference between male and female of tests failed) provides the rate of failure (as a percent- students in their average achievement- age) on the achievement tests. It was derived by divid- test mark in grade-6 mathematics. ing the sum of all the above achievement tests written by the school’s students where the score was below the We have selected this set of indicators as they provide acceptable standard by the total number of such tests systematic insight into a school’s performance: because written by those students. they are based on annually generated data, we can Since language arts, mathematics, science, and assess not only each school’s performance in a year but social studies are critical to students’ further intel- also its improvement or deterioration over time. lectual and personal development, students should, 5 6 Report Card on Alberta’s Elementary Schools 2018 at the minimum, be able to demonstrate that they almost always the case that any school does better on meet the acceptable standard of performance for their some indicators than on others. So, just as a teacher grade in these subject areas. Schools have the respon- must make a decision about a student’s overall per- sibility of ensuring that their students are adequately formance, we need an overall indicator of school prepared to do so. performance (in the tables Overall rating out of 10). Just as teachers combine test scores, homework, and class participation to rate a student, we have com- How well do the teachers bined all the indicators to produce an overall school take differences among rating. The overall rating of school performance students into account? answers the question, “In general, how is the school doing academically compared to other schools in the The Gender gap indicators Report Card?” Undoubtedly, the personal characteristics of students To derive this rating, the results for each of the can influence the way that they learn. Successful indicators, for each school year, were first standardized. teachers will take into account these characteristics Standardization is a statistical procedure whereby sets as they develop and implement their lesson plans and of raw data with different characteristics are converted teaching strategies.