The Fraser Institute has published its annual ranking of Alberta’s elementary schools, and Boyle School earned a ranking of 395 out of 665.
Principal Art Shea said he is not a big fan of the Fraser Institute because they don’t come into the schools and see what goes on.
“They only base it on marks,” he said.
In the last five years the local school has maintained a standing average of 284th out of 523 schools. Despite that steady ranking, the school’s rating out of 10 has been dropping from year to year since hitting 7.3 in 2007.
The average Grade 3 test marks for language arts have raised from 74 per cent in 2007 to 77.4 per cent in 2011. Grade 3 math marks have also gone up. In 2007 the average was 79.1, and in 2011 they were an even 80 per cent.
The Grade 6 language arts average in 2007 was 69.9, and in 2011 the average dropped to 61.2 per cent.
The Grade 6 math marks sat at 64.1 per cent in 2007, and have since dropped to 57 per cent in 2011.
The percentage of tests failed at Boyle School in 2007 was only 7.5 per cent, and has since risen to 17.1 per cent.
The Fraser Institute assigned an overall rating of 7.3 out of 10 in this year’s report.
Peter Cowley of the Fraser Institute said that the report card shows an objective look at school rankings.
“It doesn’t matter what I think,” he said. “What parents have to understand is that these are real results. If you don’t like the information, don’t read it.”
Athabasca schools were not included in the report card because Whispering Hills Primary School is only Kindergarten to Grade 3, and Landing Trail Intermediate School starts at Grade 4.
A school must include both Grade 3 and 6 to qualify for the report.
