David Staples: Troubling trends in academics at Edmonton high schools

Article content

Troubling trends including dropping diploma exam results and aggressive grade inflation at Edmonton and area high schools are evident from the latest Fraser Institute ranking of Alberta schools.

There’s also some good news in the annual Fraser report, I should say. For instance, a few of Edmonton’s biggest high schools, such as Lillian Osborne, Archbishop MacDonald and Strathcona High, remain academic powerhouses.

Article content

Article content

But 20 out of 27 Edmonton high schools saw their diploma exam mark drop from 2016 to 2022. The biggest drop came at Queen Elizabeth, which saw grades crash to to 49.7 per cent in 2022 from 59.1 per cent in 2016.

At the same time, 21 out of 27 local high schools saw a higher percentage of students fail their diploma exams. Queen Elizabeth also did worst here, going from a 29.4 per cent failure rate to a 52.5 per cent failure rate.

And 24 out of the 27 high schools saw grade inflation between 2016 and 2022 when it comes to comparing diploma exam results with each school’s corresponding classroom marks. The most aggressive increase in inflation was at Austin O’Brien, which saw the discrepancy go from a fairly normal 4.8 per cent inflation in 2016 to the classroom marks being a whopping 13.0 per cent higher than diploma marks in 2022.

What to make of these trends?

Edmonton Public Schools hasn’t yet had time to review the Fraser Institute report, but the division’s media consultant Anna Batchelor noted, “The division’s most recent annual education results review (2022-2023) shows that our test scores are comparable to what we’re seeing in other jurisdictions across the province. While we know we have work to do, in many areas our students continue to achieve higher than the provincial average.”

Article content

Article content

One oft-made criticism of the report is that the Fraser Institute rankings are a reflection of the educational attainment and socio-economic status of the parents of the students.

This critique has some validity.

We generally see schools in wealthy neighbourhoods rank much higher than schools in poorer neighbourhoods. But the value of the Fraser report comes in schools comparing themselves to schools with similar demographics, said Peter Cowley, senior fellow at the Fraser Institute, noting there is often significant variance, with some schools adopting better practices than others.

The single best way to use the Fraser report, Cowley said, is to study the overall trend of a single school, to focus on whether or not a school has improved over time.

By that standard, Edmonton schools are doing OK, with 12 of the 27 schools improving on their overall Fraser rating out of 10 since the 2015-16 school year and 14 schools dropping on their rating.

The most improved Edmonton schools from 2016 to 2022 are Edmonton Islamic, which went from 6.1 to 9.1 in Fraser grading and a seventh overall ranking out of 197 Alberta high schools, and J. Percy Page, which went from 3.5 to 5.3 in Fraser grading.

Article content

Fast-improving J. Percy Page ranked 137th overall in 2022, but was singled out for praise by the Fraser Institute for its rapid improvement, with diploma exam marks going from 58.6 in 2016 to 61.5 in 2022. The failure rate on diploma exams dropped from 30.5 to 25.8.

The Edmonton schools that have trended down the most are Queen Elizabeth, Archbishop MacDonald and Austin O’Brien.

Archbishop MacDonald ranks 10th overall in the rankings, but its score out of 10 has dropped from 9.3 to 8.5 since 2016. The school saw its average diploma exam mark drop from 72 to 70 per cent, and its percentage of failed diploma exams rise from 6.6 per cent to 9.3 per cent. At the same time, the school has seen major grade inflation, with classroom marks going from 5.9 per cent higher than diploma exam marks in 2016 to 10.1 per cent more in 2022.

One Edmonton public school, Old Scona, scored a perfect 10 out of 10 in 2016 and did so again in 2022, making it tied for the top performing high school in Alberta overall with the two Calgary independent schools, Webber Academy and Calgary French and International. Admission for Old Scona requires high academic achievement in junior high.

Article content

I’ll be interested in what Edmonton public eventually has to say about the Fraser Report. My own sense is that school closures during COVID had a nasty impact on our kids mental and physical health, but also hammered them academically, as seen by the higher diploma exam failure rates and lower test scores in 2022.

As for the ever-increasing grade inflation, that’s a different and more troubling issue. It’s likely related to the much-studied trend in the affluent Western world of placing more emphasis on not hurting anyone’s feelings, with less emphasis on high standards and productivity.

With students back in school, diploma results should improve. As for rampant grade inflation, that will only go away if our values change, if we again place more emphasis on achievement and efficiency, less on feel-good practice.

dstaples@postmedia.com

Article content