An Atlantic Canada educational report had a tough time sizing up Island schools. A statement from AIMS, which stands for the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, calls unfortunate the fact that freedom of information laws do not apply to the Island’s publicly funded post-secondary institutions. Quick facts: Here are the final P.E.I. grades in the AIMS seventh annual high school report card. Several Island schools were not graded due to a lack of information.
Several schools in P.E.I. missed out on a final grade in AIMS’ seventh annual Atlantic Canadian High School Report Card due to a lack of information on the achievement of students at university and community college.
This has allowed the University of Prince Edward Island to opt out of providing data for the report, AIMS notes.
“As a result of this lack of information, two of the top three schools from last year’s report card do not receive a final grade this year, including last year’s top school, Souris Regional High School,” said AIMS in a statement on the report which was released Tuesday.
Charlottetown Rural High School maintains its B grade and second spot in the rankings.
No school saw a significant single year change in its overall grade.
Kensington Intermediate Senior High School did climb from a C+ to a B over the past three years to claim the highest grade of all P.E.I. schools receiving a final grade in this year’s report.
“Whether the successes we see in the overall trends are due to fundamental changes at the schools, a change in staff, or the statistically unlikely scenario that parents are only sending the overachieving kids to school, the AIMS Report Card does not and cannot say,” said AIMS.
“The AIMS Report Card is a descriptive tool only, meant to encourage informed engagement by the school community with the school.”
Yet the province’s Department of Education and Early Childhood Development does not put any value in the report.
“We’ve never put too much weight into it because we don’t believe in ranking schools,” said Linda Lowther, a senior official with the department.
“It’s just not as refined a tool as it should be and we’ve had researchers tell us it is just not valid.”
Lowther stressed that the department is “not anti-assessment.”
In fact, it participates in a number of assessments, she said.
In addition to the department’s own provincial assessment, P.E.I. also participates in the Pan-Canadian Assessment Program, a national assessment of performance in reading, math and science of 13-year-olds as well as PISA, an international assessment of 15 year olds ability in reading, math and science.
— B grades were given to Kensington Intermediate Senior High and Charlottetown Rural High School.
— B- grades were given to Westisle Composite High School and Three Oaks Senior High School.
— C+ grades were given to Montague Regional High School and Bluefield High School.
