FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
28 JUNE 2012 

SECOND ANNUAL WESTERN HIGH SCHOOLS REPORT CARD RELEASED
Scores for every High School in Manitoba and Saskatchewan

Halifax/Winnipeg: 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 stands in stark contrast to global best practices in education. “In 2006 the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) did a global analysis of what accounts for the differences in school level performance around the globe,” explains Charles Cirtwill, President of AIMS. “They found that of all the items they considered, two most important factors in making schools better were public reporting of school level performance and school level control of budget decisions. Manitoba 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, however, to be commended.  “Saskatchewan is committed not only to making schools better but to including the public as a real partner in that effort”, says Peter Holle, President of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. ”We know that engaged parents and communities make for better schools and we know that informed parents are better able and more willing to engage. Saskatchewan should be proud of their government’s leadership on improving openness about education in the West.”

The Report card can be found online here. It 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.

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For more information, please contact:

 
Dr. Rodney Clifton, Senior Fellow,
Frontier Centre for Public Policy
Phone 204-474-8100 (H-204-261-8895)
Email: [email protected]

For questions about the AIMS model and what it measures, please contact:

Dr. Rick Audas, Lead Author
Atlantic Institute for Market Studies
709-749-2075
[email protected]

 

View a PDF version of this press release here.