The Fraser Institute And School Rankings

Uncategorized

The Fraser Institute website states: “Our mission is to improve the quality of life for Canadians, their families and future generations…” I wonder if that would include access for young Canadians to a free, high-quality, public education system? If I were the Fraser Institute and I had faith in the research methods that led to the data that was collected and analyzed every year, the first question I would ask myself is why are private schools doing so much better than public schools? And that, I hope would lead to an investigation to determine how public schools might learn from the success of their private counterparts.

On the other hand, if I didn’t give a rat’s ass about public education, I would just keep cranking out the same data year after year with the same results and the same tired unstated conclusion that if you want your children to get a good education, you had better be prepared to get them into a private school.

So for sake of argument, let’s say that this data is meaningful and that private schools are in at least some way out-performing public schools. What are the reasons? Could they include that private schools

  • charge whatever they like for tuition in addition to the funding they receive from the provincial government?
  • “encourage” parents to volunteer their time or make monetary donations in lieu?
  • only accept students with certain criteria?
  • ensure that class sizes are well below the public school average?
  •  ensure that their teachers have more preparation time than public school teachers?
  •  have minimal or no special needs students?
  • can terminate enrolment of students determined to be “problematic” and as a result
  • can better enforce school expectations for behaviour and performance?

Maybe if the Fraser institute actually cared about the state of public education, they would stop wasting their time collecting data that confirms the obvious.  Maybe they would start recognizing that much of the advantage of private schools is a result of money, lots of it, and a homogeneous student base.  Maybe they would start to encourage governments to stop funding the thriving private system and properly fund the public one ensuring that all children, regardless of socio-economics, can have access to a first class education.

And can walk to their elementary school.

4 thoughts on “The Fraser Institute And School Rankings”

  1. Hello Mark,

    Very nicely put…I’m glad you’re still advocating for public education. Please forward your article to the Sun.

    Regards,
    Bonita

  2. Hello Mark,
    I agree with all your observations and comments. The greater public would be better served if the government stopped subsidizing those citizens with enough money to withdraw from their own communities and utilize private schools. The Fraser Institute seems to do a good job of publicizing itself because its constant presence in the media is not justified by the terrible quality of its ‘studies’. These studies are wonderful examples of bad science; no matter what the data, they always arrive at the same conclusion, and many readers may miss the authors’ apparent ignorance of the most basic assumptions and use of statistical analysis. For example, the numbered ranking of schools with small differences in measured parameters is misleading because those differences are not likely to be statistically significant. As you pointed out, comparing different populations (pre-selected private school students vs. everyone accepted public school students), and assuming that they are identical going into any sort of testing is invalid. Any student of a first statistics course would know that, which might make a cynic wonder about the quality of education received by the authors of such reports.
    The polarization created by the Fraser Institute reports, i.e., private schools vs. public ones, is a false divide. In the end, the quality of a teacher in the classroom, and the level of support at home, is likely to have more to do with the success of a student than the amount of money being diverted to the education-for-profit industry. There are amazing and not-so-amazing teachers in both systems.

    Ken

Comments are closed.