The Fraser Institute has recently crowned West Vancouver's Cedardale elementary school as one of the top schools in the province, giving it a perfect 10 out of 10 in its annual school survey.
The think-tank released its annual Report Card on B.C. Elementary Schools this Monday, evaluating almost a thousand schools in the province and ranking them according to 10 academic criteria. The scores are for the 2013 school year.
On receiving the perfect score from the Institute, Cedardale's principal Michelle LaBounty said that while it's exciting, the rankings are just one snapshot of a school's performance.
"There are all other kinds of other factors that go into the Fraser Institute's rankings, and that's really something that people should consider - that there are so many other factors than just this one test on how a school is performing," said LaBounty.
"(The Report Card) bolsters a bit of confidence but in a long-term way, they don't really affect us."
This is the first time the nine-year-old West Vancouver French-immersion school has received the Institute's perfect score, having previously scored an 8.5 in 2012.
The evaluation is based off data drawn from the Foundation Skills Assessments, or FSA tests, conducted by the province. Some of the categories of evaluation include the average FSA score in Grade 4 and Grade 7 reading, writing and numeracy, and the difference between male and female students scores in reading and numeracy.
Other local schools that secured a 10 out of 10 this year are West Vancouver's Mulgrave and North Vancouver's St. Pius and L'Ecole Francaise Internationale de Vancouver. Conversely, North Vancouver's Norgate and Seymour Heights scored 1.6 and 3.9 respectively while West Vancouver's St. Anthony's had a rating of 5.4 overall, slipping from 2012's 9.7 score.
However, some educators are less than thrilled about the Institute's annual report, including Rob Millard, the West Vancouver Teacher's Association president.
"(The Report Card) creates a crazy-town attitude where people who
are uninformed see these rankings and they want their kids to go to that school. Wherever the student goes, funding goes as well and it causes instability - and the last thing we need is more instability in the public school system," said Millard.
Millard expressed frustration for the FSA test on which the Report Card is based.
"Its just a huge waste of time. .. More and more parents are opting out of the FSA because often they are stressful for their kids, and it's demoralizing" said Millard.
"In my opinion your kids' time would be better served going for a dentist checkup than taking the FSA."
