Whistler's Myrtle Philip Community School was named today (Monday, Feb. 6) one of the "fastest improving" elementary schools in B.C. by the Fraser Institute.
The local school scored an overall rating of 8.8 out of 10 in the organization's 2011 elementary school performance report — up from 8.2 in the previous annual ranking. Myrtle Philip ranked 54th out of a total 860 B.C. elementary schools included in the report.
The Fraser Institute's annual ranking attempts to show which schools in B.C. have improved or fallen behind in the areas of reading, writing and math over the past five years, according to a press release issued by the organization.
"Our report card is the only objective, reliable tool that parents have to compare the academic performance of their child's school over time and to that of other schools in their community," Peter Cowley, Fraser Institute director of school performance studies, said in the release.
"The Fraser Institute's school report card is the only source for long-term, province-wide school performance data that helps parents monitor the performance of their child's school and help educators identify key areas for improvement in their classrooms."
Whistler's Spring Creek Community School ranked 6.4 out of 10 in 2011 — down from 7.6 in 2010. Spring Creek is in 331 place out of the 860 schools included in the report.
In Pemberton, Signal Hill Elementary scored a five out of 10, which is an improvement over the school's 4.2 score in 2010. The school is in 601 place out of 860.
The Whistler Waldorf School was not included in the report.
The report rates both public and independent B.C. schools based on 10 indicators using data from the Foundation Skills Assessment testing administered by the B.C. Ministry of Education. It also includes contextual information such as the percentage of ESL students and percentage of special needs students at individual schools.
The full results are available at www.compareschoolrankings.org.
