By Kellah Lavoie

P.A. high schools do poorly on provincial report card

Mar 21, 2011 | 6:24 AM

A report out last week ranks Prince Albert schools poorly.

The Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) made up a report card of Saskatchewan high schools.

Out of 178 schools, Carlton Comprehensive High School ranked 44th – the next highest was Meath Park High School at 81 and St. Mary High School, the only Prince Albert Roman Catholic Separate School Division school in the list, was listed at 88. The lowest in the area was Big River High School at 161.

The placement is based on factors of engagement, achievement and performance. The document says it is only a reflection of the school and not the students who attend.

Only six Saskatchewan Rivers School Division (SRSD) schools were on the report card, the report says the other five don’t have enough information to rank.

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Tom Sutherland, superintendent of schools for SRSD, said he doesn’t know how the institute came to those rankings.

“From my perspective at this point I agree with the (Ministry of Education), (the grades) seem to have limited value because I can’t seem to replicate the results. I don’t really understand what they’re interpretation of some of the numbers are,” he said.

Sutherland has tried to contact AIMS, but has not heard back.

paNOW has also made several attempts to contact the institute to discuss the findings, but calls and emails have not been returned.

Sutherland said the best way to describe how he feels about the numbers is “confused.”

“If we sent a report card home to a student, which we do often, it’s not helpful to the student if the student doesn’t understand why they received the mark they did, and that’s the situation we’re in here understanding the report card.

“I have access to the same data they do, and some of the numbers just don’t make sense to me.”

He said one specific issue was the social index factored into grades given.

“They have a social index for the three high schools in Prince Albert. They all have the same attendance area, but they all have difference social indexes, so I am curious about that.”

Sutherland said another issue is they have a rating for provincial exam results for Carlton, even though the high school does not write provincial exams.

“I’m curious where that number came from,” he said.

He said all he wants it a little clarification as to why his schools did so poorly.

“It’s one number, but we can’t learn from that one number until we understand how they derived it – where our strengths and challenges are.

“They put a lot of work in this, we want to make meaning of it and see if there is anything we can learn from it,” Sutherland said.

To see the document and rankings, click here.

klavoie@panow.com