The new rankings for B.C. secondary schools are out and Bulkley Valley schools are rated throughout the list.
The Fraser Institute’s director of school performance studies, Peter Cowley says the highest rated school in the area is the Bulkley Valley Christian School sitting at 24th out of 293 schools.
Smithers Secondary and Houston Secondary both sit in the middle of the list with rankings of 147/293.
He says Lakes District Secondary in Burns Lake was ranked 255/293 and Hazelton was among the lowest in the province – just two spots from the bottom of the list.
Cowley says the rankings are based on test scores and graduation rates but other factors may be at play.
“One of the things that we can’t say is why any given school is the way it is. So for example, if we compare Houston to Hazelton we can’t tell you why one school’s average is 6.0 over the last five years and the other is only 1.3.”
He says schools and parents that want to make improvements to their rankings should contact the 30 schools on the list which showed significant improvement over the last few years.
“Certainly what the administrators have to do is be in touch with the schools who have had success in finding improvement and ask what they did and see if anything that they did is applicable to the local situation.”
He adds parents have a role as well and should talk to school staff about how to help improve low rankings.