The Toronto Star published "special report", titled "How does your school rate?" (March 1, 2007, B Section).  It is yet another misuse of EQAO scores.  This rarticle is based on the report by C.D.Howe Institute, where they took the EQAO test results and ranked schools according to them!  They claim that these comparisons are "fair to teachers and principals because they are peformed after separating out the effects of the school's student pool"(David Johnson, economics professor at Wilfred Laurier, who did this "study" for the C.D. Howe Institute).  It's a joke that Johnson thinks that this fair because he very wisely compared schools "with similar neighbourhood characteristics".  Sure, it's interesting to see how the other schools did on the EQAO tests but to use these results as a determining factor whether a school is successful is completely unfair.

EQAO was developed with the intention of evaluating the curriculum, not the performance of schools.  The original intent was to see if the curriculum was suitable for students and the test results would indicate where adjustments could be made to it.  What  great idea-- developing a curriculum that is appropriate for our students, and effective in "closing the gap"  between student potential and student achievement(see the previous entry)! 

Sadly, this noble intention has now been entirely obliterated by media sensationalization and folks who misuse the information, such as Professor Johnson and the ones at the Fraser Institute.

Now, you must be wondering where my school, Castlemore P.S. "ranked".  Is it because my school did poorly and hence, this ranting?  No, quite the contrary.  Castlemore was actually "ranked" one of the top two schools in York Region.  While we are proud of our Grade 3 and 6 students for performing so well, we are reluctant to show this off because the uninformed public are using this information inappropriately.  Our school population has been steadily increasing since it's official opening in 2000 because of the parents who have been flocking to this neighbourhood because they want their children to be going to a "top school".  Most of these are Asian parents who are used to such ranking of schools back in Asia.