How is this controversial? Yes, the parents of many private school students are paying for a higher level of education, but the kids there are still working hard for their grades. It might be controversial if the institute hid their criteria, but in this case it's pretty straight forward. As someone who went to a private school, I don't appreciate the insinuation that there is some sort of "controversy" surrounding the fact that certain schools produce better grades than others. Are there other factors that may make this an unfair situation? Yes. Controversial? No.

Fair question, Katie. The controversy is not, as far as I know, over the revelation that a well-funded private school can create better conditions. Actually, it's the provincial government that takes issue with the annual report because it says judging a school by its students' exam and grad rates neglects to acknowledge everything else a given (usually lower-ranking) school does. There are always raised hackles over the Fraser Institute's conservative ideology. Personally I think both arguments are specious. There are a lot of reasons schools end up where they do on the list (for example a large ESL population, isolation, even funding), but there's merit in knowing students are generally doing really well or really poorly and then asking why.

A posible reason for controversy is that private schools get to hand-pick their students—rejecting those that have learning disabilities and such—while the public system has to take everyone, including ESL and special ed. students that drag the test scores down.

How about the fact the the Calgary Board of Education provides no information to the Fraser Institute other than what is publicly available while private schools, eager to boost their rankings.... who knows what they supply? Guess you'd have to ask them. The CBE has no interaction with the FI.

Also, as Inara says, public schools with high ESL levels get trashed by the report while the students at private schools don't have nearly the same socio-economic issues as, well, the common people. God forbid there's foreigners getting in the way of your kids neo-con education.

Lastly, and the worst part, is that hack media like the Calgary Herald actually take these reports verbatim and publish them as "special sections." Everyone should phone the Herald and complain every time they publish these. This is a lobby group publishing reports on education - no agendas here! If the Pembina Institute issued a report on schools, would the Herald publish the results at all?

There are a host of issues around the education system. Although there have always been private schools, the problem now is that the students come not just from the very well to do upper class, but increasingly from a middle class seeking to protect their children from the idiotology (idiot ideology)of the public school system. Rather than look at the message & learn from it, the "friends of public education" want to shoot the messenger. The idiotology includes the focus on self-esteem over achievement; the anti-bullying propaganda rather than consequences for the bullies (the outcomes of the lectures are remarkable: the bullies know better how to bully, and bullied come out either terrified or with false expectations); the absence of discipline including self-discipline within the schools and playgrounds; the absence of consequences for bad behaviour; the emphasis on achievement-diversity in each class and the rejection of streaming; the rejection of community schools, the love of bussing, and the frequent moving of groups of students to different schools. The hypocrisy in the system is stunning: when the students don't do well academically, the fall back is that they are being taught "critical thinking": horsefeathers: a kid who dares to question a politically correct concept gets the crap metaphorically kicked out of him.

In the past, middle class parents began placing their children in French Immersion. In most cases, learning French was a side benefit: they got smaller class sizes, families that were committed to education, peers for their children who were more academically oriented, and teachers who were not burned out. Today, middle class parents have the options of charter schools, and private schools. Yes, for the private schools, there are rich parents, but there are an awful lot of middle class parents who are making the sacrifices to give their children a chance that is now becoming almost impossible within the public system: e.g. my new car is a 20 year old $2,000 beater.

The ATA, the Department of Education, and the public boards choice so far has been to shoot the messenger, and their preference is to prevent any such information from even existing. The alternative is to use the information: address the idiotology: stop screwing the kids.

@ bohunk: "foreigners" I have direct long term personal experience with one private school, and maybe it would be helpful if you were to actually take a look inside a few of these schools with an open mind. First, although "whitey" may still be the majority, children from a large range of ethnic origins are present in large numbers. Knowing how many of the students are "foreigners" is much more difficult. What's your definition of foreigner? Does it require that the child be born outside the country? Is a child born in Canada to an immigrant a "foreigner"? If one child was born in the old country, and the second child born in Canada, is one an immigant, and the other a neo-con? Is an American an immigrant? A white South African? A white middle class Venezuelan?

@ bohunk: The information used by the Fraser Institute to generate the rankings is described at the front of their report: no secrets: even the statistical financials of the parents, and # of ESL are provided. So there is info to allow looking beyond the simple average score. Is this perfect? Of course, not, but it is a lot more information than anyone else provides. Oh, I'd love to see a report on schools by the Pembina Institute, as it would be fascinating to see what info a socialist lobby group would use.

@ Clairvoyant... what is your story? Inquiring minds want to know.

@ Rosmo My story is long & still being lived. Please tell me what the inquiring minds would like to know.