Choosing the Right Schools
British Columbia Secondary Education –
A System Without Measurement
Universities around the world are ranked annually and systematically based on various quantitative and qualitative measurements.
Some of the longest established and most influential global ranking systems are Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings (QS), Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE), and Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).
Similarly, there are also ranking systems that focus on the performance of universities within a certain country, such as U.S. News and World Report’s rankings of American universities and Maclean’s rankings of Canadian universities.
While each university ranking system weighs performance indicators differently, together they deliver an all-encompassing picture of the resources, research capacities, educational programs, and career opportunities offered by universities around the world. Millions of families depend on such information as a criterion for making one of the most significant life decisions.
Problem and Impact
Choosing the right school makes a world of difference for our children. However, this is no easy task for parents in British Columbia due to two fundamental problems:
1.
British Columbia’s education system offers a wide range of options to choose from. Both in the public and the independent education system, different schools possess different strengths that are appropriate to the needs and talents of different individuals. It is good to have options, but it also makes the task of selecting the most suitable school more challenging.
2.
There is no updated uniform criteria or reliable academic research available that allows the general public to examine the quality and effectiveness of secondary education delivered by high schools in British Columbia. Little information is provided to the public concerning the performance of British Columbian high schools, despite how vital they are to preparing students for higher education and their future careers.
Despite the significance and positive impact of having a school ranking system, it is an educational priority that has been long neglected in British Columbia. In fact, our province has been lacking an updated ranking system of British Columbian secondary schools since 2020, when the Fraser Institute last published its ranking.
Without any form of third-party measurement or evaluation at their disposal, parents and students have been largely kept in the dark for the past five years, during which time the landscape of secondary education has significantly evolved. New schools have been established, while others have closed. And during that time, some schools have made a noticeable and concerted effort to improve the quality of the education they provide, while others have fallen behind.
Amidst these changes, parents often struggle under the lack of reliable information when making important educational decisions for their children.
The Solution
BCEIC fills the existing information vacuum by creating an effective yardstick for measurement. With the help of the British Columbia Ministry of Education and Child Care and scholars with in-depth knowledge in the education system of our province, BCEIC releases an annual school ranking report based on the performance of secondary schools across British Columbia.
At BCEIC, we do not believe in the concept of a “perfect school.” The purpose of our annual school ranking report is neither to judge nor point fingers at our hardworking fellow educators.
Instead, we believe that quality education should be an evolving process of continuous self-evaluation and improvement. While we encourage students to achieve their full potential, we believe that we, as educators, should set an example by critically examining the work we do and the results we achieved to seek continuous self-improvement.