Annunciation continues to set the pace in Prince Rupert with the latest Elementary Schools report from Fraser Institute

The annual Report Card from the Fraser Institute on the province's Elementary Schools was released in late November, a project that the Vancouver based organization says provides parents with a foundation towards determining a school's academic performance on a year to year basis.

The release for 2020 comes a little later than usual, and this year in the midst of a pandemic which no doubt will gain some note from those who may suggest that the results should be framed by the most unusual circumstances that students find themselves in this year.

That however did not factor into the narrative released by Peter Cowley the co author of the report with Joel Emes, who kept to the traditional themes that they deliver for their annual review.

“The report card offers parents information they can’t easily find anywhere else, about how their child’s school performs over time and how it compares to other schools in the province,”-- Peter Cowley, report co-author and senior fellow at the Fraser Institute. 

The reports which often bring with them some controversy, make use of the Foundation Skills Assessment program in the schools to make their determinations on the level of success that is found in the schools.

That is a snapshot that many educators, administrators and BCTF officials suggest is not the best barometer  for a full understanding of the level of achievement found in the schools.

The findings from the report reviewed results in three categories Reading, Writing and Numeracy.

This years findings explored the findings from the elementary classrooms of the city's four public schools, as well as those of the City's Independent school Annunciation.

As it has in the past, Annunciation had higher end results for the community compared to those schools in SD52, though the Fifth Avenue West School slid somewhat this year. 

With Annunciation drifting out of its usual placement in the top 100 of the 931 schools surveyed across British Columbia.

When it comes to the overall listings from the entire provincial study, Annunciation placed 109th out of the 931 schools, that were included in this years report. with a rating of 8.1 out of 10. That marks a slight decline from their standard of achievement from a year ago

Of the four public schools of the Prince Rupert System, Lax Keen found the top end of those listings, listed at 651st of the 931 rated at 5.1 out of 10 of the schools from this years report.

Some of the other data culled from the report offers a snapshot into the classroom make up at each of the schools of the city.

When it comes to percentage of students where English is a Second Langue the findings were

Annunciation  --  0%
Lax Keen -- 13.6%
Ecole Roosevelt Park --  16%
Pineridge -- 16%
Conrad  -- 28.9%

The level of special needs students found in each of the schools was as follows:

Annunciation -- 5.5%
Ecole Roosevelt Park  -- 6.7%
Lax Keen --  7.4%
Conrad -- 9.8%
Pineridge -- 12.9%


The full findings from the Fraser Institute report for all areas of the province can be reviewed here.

In the Northwest some of the findings included:

Ebeneezer in Smithers is listed at 109/931 to top the Bulkley Valley listings.

In Terrace, Veritas and Centennial Christian both share the top listing at 99/931

St. Anthony's in Kitimat rated the highest in that community with 188/931


While province wide a number of private or Independent Schools in the Lower Mainland all share the number one placement from the report.

The Fraser Institutes Secondary School report was released at the start of the 2019-2020 school year.

One of the few things that seems to unite School Administrators and BCTF members is a general approach of disregarding the findings from the Fraser Institute, both school management and union members tend to look for a wider overview of how the schools are doing to deliver the complete snapshot when it comes to education in the province.

In years past, the BCTF  has often called for the end of the FSA tests in the schools, seeking the assistance of parents and guardians of students to bring pressure to School District's to abandon the testing program.

This year however, the release of statistical review from the Fraser Institute for the most part has been ignored by the Teachers' union, which at the moment is focused on COVID related safety measures for the schools.

For more notes related to education across the Northwest see our archive page here.