Halifax – The Atlantic Institute for Market Studies is asking the Nova Scotia Minister of Education to take a closer look at its third Annual Report Card for Atlantic Canada’s High Schools.

“The fact that a senior member of government would comment on a piece of complex research without apparently having read it or been properly briefed first is a serious concern to us and has resulted in misleading information being supplied to the people of Nova Scotia,” writes AIMS president Brian Lee Crowley in an open letter to Education Minister Jamie Muir.

Dr. Crowley was responding to comments made by Mr. Muir to the news media suggesting the AIMS report card uses ten year old data. In fact, the report clearly states that the data is based on the performance of high schools for the school years 2000-2001 through 2002-2003.

The letter also questions the minister’s implication that the report card’s methodology is flawed because the data is “wanting”. Dr. Crowley explains that the data used for the Nova Scotia high schools is provided by the Nova Scotia Department of Education. He says if the department has more complete data then it should be provided to AIMS so that we can give Nova Scotians an even more faithful picture of their schools.

Dr. Crowley says, “The objective of the Report Card is to help improve the education of our children. AIMS looks forward to continuing to work with the Nova Scotia Department of Education to make the best possible set of educational indicators available to the people of Nova Scotia so we may accomplish that goal.”

Click here for a copy of the letter to the minister.

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For further information, please contact:

Brian Lee Crowley, AIMS president, 902-499-1998