The Fraser Institute published the annual rankings of British Columbia elementary schools, the most easily accessible tool for parents to compare the academic performance of the province's schools.
The Report Card on British Columbia's Elementary Schools 2022 ranks 870 public and independent elementary schools based on 10 academic indicators derived from the provincewide Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) results.
"The report card offers parents information they can't easily get anywhere else, about how schools perform over time and how they compare to other schools in B.C.," said Peter Cowley, report co-author and senior fellow at the Fraser Institute.
Contrary to common misconceptions, the data suggest every school is capable of improvement regardless of type, location and student characteristics.
For example, Kootenay Christian in Cranbrook is the province's fastest-improving school, climbing from a score of 5.7 (out of 10) in 2017 to 9.1 in 2021, the latest year of available comparable data. Kootenay Christian achieved these improvements despite 13.6 per cent of students having special needs who require additional support.
Over the same time period, Central Community School in Port Coquitlam improved from 3.7 to 5.1 despite 47.8 per cent of the school's students being English Language Learners.
"We often hear that schools can't improve student performance because of the communities and students they serve, but the evidence suggests otherwise," Cowley said.
