Poor Showing By Nanaimo High Schools

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Only one Nanaimo secondary school ranked well in the recent Fraser Institute rankings of provincial seconday schools.

Dover Bay Secondary ranked 49 / 256, Wellington Secondary ranked 177 / 256, Nanaimo District Seconday ranked 191 / 256,  Cedar Community Secondary ranked 254 / 256,  Woodlands Secondary ranked 225 / 256 and John Barsby ranked 247/ 256.

Clearly there are some serious issues facing  the education system in Nanaimo, all of which can not be explained away by issues facing students. The school district and the teacher's association have to accept their role in this matter as it is not just our secondary schools that are stacking up poorly, but our elementary schools did not fair all that well either.

Local school teacher association president is quoted in a local paper as trying to dismiss the results of these tests, and suggests, and I am paraphrasing, that the results that are unseen and unmeasured are the levels of improvement in some classes. For example reference was made to a teacher facing a class of grade 10 students who are writing at a grade 8 level. The association president is suggesting it is the improvement of the teacher dealing with these students that should be considered, without offering an explanation why the system in Nanaimo is producing a  class full of grade 10 students who can only write at the grade 8 level !