Love it or leave it, the Fraser Institute's report card ranking secondary schools in B.C. is here again, inviting jeers and cheers from parents, students and educators.

The accounting of school performance will be publicly released Sunday, but the institute has provided The Daily News with an exclusive preview of the 2009 data, the latest available.

Always controversial — many of the provincial exams on which the report card is partly based are too limited in scope to permit valid conclusions or comparisons — the report card nonetheless offers a tool for measuring school performance.

“The philosophy is that comparison is at the heart of the improvement process,” said Michael Thomas, associate director of the institute's school performances studies.

The institute has long argued that the report card serves the best interests of parents and students alike.

“First of all, ask school administrators about how the school is doing and how they can improve over time.”

Comparing trends within schools over time is probably more useful than comparing school rankings, but comparisons are inevitable and might even be considered essential, Thomas said.

“Schools should look to their neighbours, other schools in their area and in the province. What makes it work and how they can maintain that level of improvement.”

One useful yardstick might be comparing local results to the provincial average for school exam results — 6 out of an overall rating of 10.

St. Ann's Academy, an independent school that consistently ranks first among local schools, dropped slightly to 7.6 in 2009 from 8 in 2008.

“We do look forward to them and it's just one of the assessment tools we use as checks and balances,” said Shawn Chisholm, St. Ann's principal. “We always want to be looking at how we're presenting curriculum, whether it means changing instructional strategies or assessments.”

Chisholm credits teaching staff and a collaborative approach with the school's consistent performance overall. The private school, however, accepts no special needs students, considered a factor in measuring public-school performance.

Cale Birk, principal at South Kamloops secondary, views the report cards as a limited measure although clearly one of public interest.

“It really doesn't look at the whole school, and exams are not a full measure,” he noted, adding that students can opt out of provincial exams.

“As I've said before, you can walk through schools — wonderful schools with great kids — but according to the Fraser report, they don't rank up there with other schools.”

He pointed to a more significant measure for South Kam: “The failure rate in all courses is at an all-time low and has dropped every year for the last four years.”

South Kamloops rates at 6.4, down from 6.9 in 2008. However, the exam failure rate remains unchanged at 6.4 both years. The delayed advancement rate — meaning how many kids would have to retake Grade 12 — fell by half to 8.4 per cent from 16.5.

Where trends within schools are pronounced, they can inform parents and educators about the need for change, Thomas maintained.

Chase secondary is a possible example. The school's overall rating fell for the third year running to 3.3, yet five years ago it ranked an impressive 7.2.

“What goes on in individual schools is that parents, teachers and administrators have to get together to figure it out.”

Overall across the district there is room for improvement, Thomas said.

The Vancouver-based institute, often characterized as a conservative think tank, has been doing the report cards for the past decade. The practice has since extended to schools in Ontario and Quebec.

“We're not doing this to say, ‘This school is good, this school is bad.' The academic results really speak for themselves.”

myouds@kamloopsnews.ca