Comments on: The Fraser Institute And School Rankings http://www.thinkingteacher.ca/2016/04/06/the-fraser-institute-and-school-rankings/ Presenting and promoting critical thinking skills to high school students. And anyone else... Thu, 07 Apr 2016 16:55:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.7 By: mr.m http://www.thinkingteacher.ca/2016/04/06/the-fraser-institute-and-school-rankings/#comment-118 Thu, 07 Apr 2016 16:55:40 +0000 http://www.thinkingteacher.ca/?p=234#comment-118 Thanks Bonita!

]]> By: mr.m http://www.thinkingteacher.ca/2016/04/06/the-fraser-institute-and-school-rankings/#comment-117 Thu, 07 Apr 2016 16:54:47 +0000 http://www.thinkingteacher.ca/?p=234#comment-117 Thanks for taking the time to contribute Ken. Well said!

]]> By: Ken Naumann http://www.thinkingteacher.ca/2016/04/06/the-fraser-institute-and-school-rankings/#comment-116 Thu, 07 Apr 2016 16:38:04 +0000 http://www.thinkingteacher.ca/?p=234#comment-116 Hello Mark,
I agree with all your observations and comments. The greater public would be better served if the government stopped subsidizing those citizens with enough money to withdraw from their own communities and utilize private schools. The Fraser Institute seems to do a good job of publicizing itself because its constant presence in the media is not justified by the terrible quality of its ‘studies’. These studies are wonderful examples of bad science; no matter what the data, they always arrive at the same conclusion, and many readers may miss the authors’ apparent ignorance of the most basic assumptions and use of statistical analysis. For example, the numbered ranking of schools with small differences in measured parameters is misleading because those differences are not likely to be statistically significant. As you pointed out, comparing different populations (pre-selected private school students vs. everyone accepted public school students), and assuming that they are identical going into any sort of testing is invalid. Any student of a first statistics course would know that, which might make a cynic wonder about the quality of education received by the authors of such reports.
The polarization created by the Fraser Institute reports, i.e., private schools vs. public ones, is a false divide. In the end, the quality of a teacher in the classroom, and the level of support at home, is likely to have more to do with the success of a student than the amount of money being diverted to the education-for-profit industry. There are amazing and not-so-amazing teachers in both systems.

Ken

]]> By: Bonita Hoppen http://www.thinkingteacher.ca/2016/04/06/the-fraser-institute-and-school-rankings/#comment-115 Thu, 07 Apr 2016 02:30:14 +0000 http://www.thinkingteacher.ca/?p=234#comment-115 Hello Mark,

Very nicely put…I’m glad you’re still advocating for public education. Please forward your article to the Sun.

Regards,
Bonita

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