Alberta's Top-Performing Schools Revealed with Fair, Realistic Comparison:
C.D. Howe Institute

TORONTO, March 25 /CNW/ - Alberta's top-performing schools for grades 3, 6 and 9 are revealed today in a province-wide study that provides a fair, realistic comparison of schools. The study, from the C.D. Howe Institute, is particularly useful for parents, educators and administrators because it compares student outcomes at Alberta elementary schools where students come from similar socio-economic backgrounds, thus revealing "good" schools where principals, teachers and staff are making a positive difference in student performance.

In the study, "School Grades: Identifying Alberta's Best Schools, an Update," author David Johnson, Education Policy Scholar at the C.D. Howe Institute, screens out the influence of a range of seven socio-economic factors on how a school's students perform on Alberta's Provincial Achievement Tests for grades 3, 6 and 9. Highlights include a table of Alberta's top performing schools (80th percentile and up) with grades 3, 6, and 9; and a table of top performing schools (90th percentile and up) with grades 3 and 6. "It is a remarkable achievement when a school's students outperform the province in all three grades," commented Professor Johnson. "And there are schools on the lists of excellent schools where the students come from backgrounds that predict below average performance. These are the most interesting schools."

For the e-brief go to: http://www.cdhowe.org/pdf/ebrief_96.pdf

For the online methodology and complete school performance tables go to http://www.cdhowe.org/pdf/AlbertaScores_2010.pdf

For further information: David Johnson, Education Policy Scholar; Ben Dachis, Policy Analyst, C.D. Howe Institute, [phone]