Nick Kuhl
Lethbridge Herald
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Immanuel Christian still earned top marks amongst Lethbridge's elementary schools and is considered well above average in the province, but it was mentioned to be in a downward trend in the latest Fraser Institute report.
Co-authored by Peter Cowley and Stephen T. Easton, the 2013 Report Card on Alberta's Elementary Schools, which rates and ranks 659 participating schools from across the province, was published on Saturday.
Using nine relevant and objective indicators of school performance, the Report Card is designed to assist parents when they choose a school for their children and encourages and assists all those seeking to improve their school.
Holy Spirit's elementary schools earned an average rating of 5.1, below the provincial average of 6.0.
ICS and St. Patrick Fine Arts Elementary School were both ranked No. 99 out of 659, but Cowley says with five years of data being used, the downward trend at ICS suggests there is a "real change" as opposed to a "random fluctuation" from year to year.
"It is not the kind of information that the education establishment, the superintendents, the principals, etc., should be dismissing. There is some hard data that suggests that the extent to which kids are acquiring very basic and important skills like reading and writing and mathematics is going down," he said.
"When you see that downward pointing arrow, it's already way past time for parents to act. The next opportunity they have to speak with the principal and the staff, the question should come up: What are you planning to do? What's already in the works? And what can we do to help?" Cowley continued.
"Yes, the results have gone down. Still, they're well above average. They're achieving at a very high level. This isn't a panic situation. The ones that I would be particularly concerned with are the ones that are low-performing with no particular improvement apparent."
Father Leonard Van Tighem School was ranked at No. 240, while Our Lady of the Assumption School was at No. 412, ƒcole St. Mary's was No. 547 and St. Paul Elementary School was No. 636.
St. Martha's wasn't in the list and Lethbridge's 12 public elementary schools, which mostly have a Kindergarten to Grade 5 structure, were not included in the report.
Cowley said it is because the data is compiled largely from Provincial Achievement Tests at the Grade 3 and Grade 6 levels, thus sufficient information was not provided by those schools to rate them fairly.
A full detailed list of the ratings and rankings is viewable at www.compareschoolrankings.org.
The Fraser Institute's 2011-12 high school rankings will be updated near the end of March.