The Fraser Institute has released its 2024 Report Card on Alberta’s elementary schools, a ranking of the province’s 730 schools based on seven academic indicators. Alberta’s top schools according to this year’s Report Card are Master’s, Webber, Renert and Clear Water in Calgary and Stratford in Edmonton. Other top schools include Calgary French & International, Notre-Dame des Monts in Canmore, Strathcona-Tweedsmuir in Okotoks, Sunalta and Holy Name in Calgary and Mount Pleasant and Grandview Heights in Edmonton. In Alberta, parents can choose where to send their children to school, unlike in other provinces, where it is strictly based on home address. The institute has created an interactive guide to get all the available statistics on any given Alberta elementary school.The Government of Alberta has not released any province-wide Grade 3 tests results since the 2012-2013 school year. Therefore, researchers note, each school’s overall rating is based on academic indicators in the four core subjects, including: (1) average achievement-test marks by percent in Grade 6 language arts(2) average achievement-test marks by percent in Grade 6 mathematics(3) average achievement-test marks by percent in Grade 6 science(4) average achievement-test marks by percent in Grade 6 social studies(5) the percentage of achievement tests in (1) to (4) where the results were below the acceptable standard(6) the difference between male and female students in their average achievement test mark in Grade 6 language arts(7) the difference between male and female students in their average achievement test mark in Grade 6 mathematicsThese indicators “provide systematic insight into a school’s performance because they are based on annually generated data,” wrote the institute. The data demonstrates both what schools perform well, as well as how each school improves (or weakens) over time. The Report Card documents five years’ worth of testing to track each school’s progress.The percentage of failed achievement tests was measured by “dividing the sum of all the above achievement tests written by the school’s students where the score was below the acceptable standard by the total number of such tests written by those students.”Data also indicates effective (or ineffective) teaching and “consistently suggests what goes on in schools makes a difference to academic results,” wrote researchers. “Since language arts, mathematics, science and social studies are critical to students’ further intellectual and personal development, students should, at the minimum, be able to demonstrate that they meet the acceptable standard of performance for their grade in these subject areas,” wrote researchers. “Schools have the responsibility of ensuring that their students are adequately prepared to do so.”Fraser Institute said the “Gender Gap” in academic testing “is a subject of considerable interest in the education establishment,” a claim evidenced by the “near universal collection of student results data for these two groups of students by ministries of education.” The Report Card then analyzes data to construct Gender Gap indicators that will demonstrate the difference between boys and girls in language arts and math.
The Fraser Institute has released its 2024 Report Card on Alberta’s elementary schools, a ranking of the province’s 730 schools based on seven academic indicators. Alberta’s top schools according to this year’s Report Card are Master’s, Webber, Renert and Clear Water in Calgary and Stratford in Edmonton. Other top schools include Calgary French & International, Notre-Dame des Monts in Canmore, Strathcona-Tweedsmuir in Okotoks, Sunalta and Holy Name in Calgary and Mount Pleasant and Grandview Heights in Edmonton. In Alberta, parents can choose where to send their children to school, unlike in other provinces, where it is strictly based on home address. The institute has created an interactive guide to get all the available statistics on any given Alberta elementary school.The Government of Alberta has not released any province-wide Grade 3 tests results since the 2012-2013 school year. Therefore, researchers note, each school’s overall rating is based on academic indicators in the four core subjects, including: (1) average achievement-test marks by percent in Grade 6 language arts(2) average achievement-test marks by percent in Grade 6 mathematics(3) average achievement-test marks by percent in Grade 6 science(4) average achievement-test marks by percent in Grade 6 social studies(5) the percentage of achievement tests in (1) to (4) where the results were below the acceptable standard(6) the difference between male and female students in their average achievement test mark in Grade 6 language arts(7) the difference between male and female students in their average achievement test mark in Grade 6 mathematicsThese indicators “provide systematic insight into a school’s performance because they are based on annually generated data,” wrote the institute. The data demonstrates both what schools perform well, as well as how each school improves (or weakens) over time. The Report Card documents five years’ worth of testing to track each school’s progress.The percentage of failed achievement tests was measured by “dividing the sum of all the above achievement tests written by the school’s students where the score was below the acceptable standard by the total number of such tests written by those students.”Data also indicates effective (or ineffective) teaching and “consistently suggests what goes on in schools makes a difference to academic results,” wrote researchers. “Since language arts, mathematics, science and social studies are critical to students’ further intellectual and personal development, students should, at the minimum, be able to demonstrate that they meet the acceptable standard of performance for their grade in these subject areas,” wrote researchers. “Schools have the responsibility of ensuring that their students are adequately prepared to do so.”Fraser Institute said the “Gender Gap” in academic testing “is a subject of considerable interest in the education establishment,” a claim evidenced by the “near universal collection of student results data for these two groups of students by ministries of education.” The Report Card then analyzes data to construct Gender Gap indicators that will demonstrate the difference between boys and girls in language arts and math.
