Students at Skidegate's Sk'aadgaa Naay school are getting better test results than half the elementary schools in the province, according to the Fraser Institute's latest report, released Sunday.
The Vancouver-based think tank has put together scores from grade 4 and grade 7 Foundation Skills Assessment tests, written by all students in the province. Researchers also looked at whether male and female students were performing differently. They then gave each school a score out of 10, and ranked them.
Sk'aadgaa Naay received a score of 6.6 out of 10, which makes it number 330 on the Fraser Institute's list. There are 813 schools in the rankings, so Sk'aadgaa Naay's results put it in the top half.
The Skidegate school is also on an improving trend, according to the report. Although this is the first year the institute has ranked elementary schools, it has compiled data for the last three years for each school. Sk'aadgaa Naay's average for the last three years was 5.1 out of 10, so last year's result is an improvement.
Masset's Tahayghen elementary received a score of 0.7 out of 10 for last year, putting the school almost at the bottom of the list. Only four other schools in BC had a lower score. Last year's score was also lower than Tahayghen's average score of 1.3 for the past three years.
The elementary schools in Sandspit and Port Clements are not on the list because the Fraser Institute didn't rank any schools with less than 15 students in grades 4 or 7.
The complete report is available on the internet at www.fraserinstitute.ca