The Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) and the Frontier Centre for Public Policy (FCPP) have released the second annual Report Card on Western Canadian High Schools (Manitoba and Saskatchewan edition). The report card ranks high schools from Manitoba and Saskatchewan based on the AIMS model, which has been used in Atlantic Canada for almost a decade.
The ongoing failure to release detailed information about school level performance in Manitoba unfortunately stands in stark contrast to global best practices in education. In a 2006 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) global analysis of what accounts for the differences in school level performance around the globe, it was found that the two most important factors in making schools better were public reporting of school level performance and school level control of budget decisions. Manitoba unfortunately fails on both counts.
The efforts of the government in Saskatchewan to consider school level performance and to expand the number of measures they collect and report to the public is to be commended.
The Report card looks at school performance in the 2006-07, 2007-08, and 2008-09 school years. As a result of the province’s continuing refusal to make more comprehensive data available, Manitoba’s Report Card includes only the moving on rates for grades 10, 11 and 12, and attendance rates for a minority of schools.
Click here to read the full report.