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Flawed process skews Fraser Institute’s school rankings, claims U of O education expert
By Teresa Smith, OTTAWA CITIZEN March 17, 2013
OTTAWA — Three Ottawa-area schools made the top 10 in the Fraser Institute’s most recent provincial high school “Report Card,” released Sunday, however a University of Ottawa education expert says the report card should be taken with a big grain of salt.
Colonel By in Gloucester and St Joseph’s in Renfrew tied for third place in the province with 9.2/10. West Carleton High School came in eighth place out of 725 public, private and Catholic high schools with 9/10, and Earl of March in Kanata came in at No. 22, down five spots from last year, but maintaining its score of 8.6/10.
The right-leaning Fraser Institute, which has been providing the analysis for five-years, says the annual rankings allow parents and educators to measure improvement year over year to see “evidence of change (or lack thereof) over time.”
In order to rank the schools, the institute analyses grade 9 literacy and math test scores provided by the Ministry of Education.
Every grade 9 student is required to take the same standardized tests managed by Ontario’s Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) which, the Fraser Institute says, provides valuable data about how individual schools — and teachers — are instructing the province’s teens.
But, Joel Westheimer, University Research Chair in Democracy and Education at the University of Ottawa, calls the rankings “dangerous” and urges parents, educators and students to ignore it entirely.
“The problem is that those numbers are based on such a small fraction of what makes up a good school,” he said Sunday. “They’re enormously misleading.”
Westheimer said the root of the problem lies in the testing methods which focus on memorizing facts, instead of processing information.
“Testing technology is in its infancy and we don’t know very much about how to measure the things that are important to a lot of educators and parents” such as critical thinking skills, citizenship and an ability to sift through the incredible amount of information now available through every smart phone.
“Because we can’t actually measure what we care about, we start caring about what we can measure,” said Westheimer noting that analyses such as the Fraser Institute’s annual report force lower-ranked schools to spend even more resources teaching to these tests, to the detriment of other subjects.
The report, prepared by Peter Cowley and Stephen T. Easton, also takes into account the socio-economic makeup of the school population, including parents’ average income, the percentage of students who speak English as a second language, and the number of students with special needs who attend.
This socio-economic measurement identifies schools “that are successful despite adverse conditions faced by their students at home,” says the report.
The authors say the ranking allows schools that are lower on the list to learn from “more effective” schools at the top by studying their teaching techniques.
However, Westheimer says the schools which rank the highest are almost always those from higher-income neighbourhoods.
Instead of concentrating on standardized testing, Westheimer recommends assessing schools by the best examples of a student’s work.
“Portfolio assessment” requires high school students to gather examples of their best work in a variety of required subjects and present it at an exhibition in front of parents, teachers, community-members and other students.
“Rather than testing that’s focused on trying to catch kids not knowing things, portfolio assessment tries to find out what they know,” said Westheimer. “It’s a whole different approach.”
“Of course,” acknowledges the report, “the choice of a school should not be made solely on the basis of a single source of information.” It suggests parents should consult EQAO and ministry websites, discuss choices with parents whose children already schools in the neighbourhood, and set up meetings with representatives from the local school board.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/T...aser+Institute+most+recent/8111830/story.html
By Teresa Smith, OTTAWA CITIZEN March 17, 2013
OTTAWA — Three Ottawa-area schools made the top 10 in the Fraser Institute’s most recent provincial high school “Report Card,” released Sunday, however a University of Ottawa education expert says the report card should be taken with a big grain of salt.
Colonel By in Gloucester and St Joseph’s in Renfrew tied for third place in the province with 9.2/10. West Carleton High School came in eighth place out of 725 public, private and Catholic high schools with 9/10, and Earl of March in Kanata came in at No. 22, down five spots from last year, but maintaining its score of 8.6/10.
The right-leaning Fraser Institute, which has been providing the analysis for five-years, says the annual rankings allow parents and educators to measure improvement year over year to see “evidence of change (or lack thereof) over time.”
In order to rank the schools, the institute analyses grade 9 literacy and math test scores provided by the Ministry of Education.
Every grade 9 student is required to take the same standardized tests managed by Ontario’s Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) which, the Fraser Institute says, provides valuable data about how individual schools — and teachers — are instructing the province’s teens.
But, Joel Westheimer, University Research Chair in Democracy and Education at the University of Ottawa, calls the rankings “dangerous” and urges parents, educators and students to ignore it entirely.
“The problem is that those numbers are based on such a small fraction of what makes up a good school,” he said Sunday. “They’re enormously misleading.”
Westheimer said the root of the problem lies in the testing methods which focus on memorizing facts, instead of processing information.
“Testing technology is in its infancy and we don’t know very much about how to measure the things that are important to a lot of educators and parents” such as critical thinking skills, citizenship and an ability to sift through the incredible amount of information now available through every smart phone.
“Because we can’t actually measure what we care about, we start caring about what we can measure,” said Westheimer noting that analyses such as the Fraser Institute’s annual report force lower-ranked schools to spend even more resources teaching to these tests, to the detriment of other subjects.
The report, prepared by Peter Cowley and Stephen T. Easton, also takes into account the socio-economic makeup of the school population, including parents’ average income, the percentage of students who speak English as a second language, and the number of students with special needs who attend.
This socio-economic measurement identifies schools “that are successful despite adverse conditions faced by their students at home,” says the report.
The authors say the ranking allows schools that are lower on the list to learn from “more effective” schools at the top by studying their teaching techniques.
However, Westheimer says the schools which rank the highest are almost always those from higher-income neighbourhoods.
Instead of concentrating on standardized testing, Westheimer recommends assessing schools by the best examples of a student’s work.
“Portfolio assessment” requires high school students to gather examples of their best work in a variety of required subjects and present it at an exhibition in front of parents, teachers, community-members and other students.
“Rather than testing that’s focused on trying to catch kids not knowing things, portfolio assessment tries to find out what they know,” said Westheimer. “It’s a whole different approach.”
“Of course,” acknowledges the report, “the choice of a school should not be made solely on the basis of a single source of information.” It suggests parents should consult EQAO and ministry websites, discuss choices with parents whose children already schools in the neighbourhood, and set up meetings with representatives from the local school board.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/T...aser+Institute+most+recent/8111830/story.html
