Gary Mason deserves a hat tip for today's story in the Groan & Wail about Roosevelt Park School in Prince Rupert, and their ranking courtesy of the Fraser Institute who used the figures from BC's Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) test. Those figures put Roosevelt in last place, with a score of, well ... zero.
On the other end of the scale, is the private school St. George's School, who scored at the top of the test with a score of ten out of ten
Worth noting, there is no website for Roosevelt.
Mason notes that the FSA scores are for basic reading, writing, and 'rithmetic. They don't account for incidence of FAS, number of years previously in school, home situation, etc. Not huge factors for the kids at St. George, but a bit more of an issue in Prince Rupert.
And it's all about learning, or so say the helpful folks at the Fraser Institute Think Tank (note: emphasis on the 'tank', not so much the 'think') in their release on the 'Report Card'
I'm always happy to see my free market friends use taxpayer-funded research, but it might have been nice to see some value-added here. Like what are the determinants at an individual level? What type of follow-up is needed to ensure the low-scoring schools can improve their score?
And what really surprised me here was that the Fraser Institute missed an opportunity to talk about more effective use of tax-dollars.
I mean, jeez, is it really an effective use of BC tax money to provide over $2000 per student to a private school like St. Georges, when a public school is in such straits?
And just how do the tax-paying parents of Prince George feel about that?
They must be all warm and fuzzy knowing some kids are getting a great education with their tax-dollars, even if its not their own children.
I suppose its the difference between between Prince George, and Saint George.
1 comment:
I was trying to get more information on FSA scores and came across this article. Regarding the $2000 per head that private schools get...what do you think should happen? No $'s for private schools? Dump more money into schools that are poor performers? How would you decide this? Would you use a measure? Would you use the Fraser Institute's measure to justify more $'s for poor performing schools even though you seem to not like the measure.
I think Fraser's measure is OK. I look at it and consider it useful information. Your's, not so much.
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