"When Delta's hardy boys fall into line / We're gonna fail math class another time!"

[pyat]

commanderteddog has pointed me to a new statistic database being offered by the Ontario Ministry of Education. We've both used it to look up Delta Secondary School, our mutual alma mater. The numbers fit my perception of the school when I attended. White, poor, and thoroughly undistinguished. At one point in the late 90s, the province was ranking high schools in terms of academic achievement, funding, etc. Delta ranked 577th out of 600.

Academic Math:
Percentage of students achieving the provincial standard: 22%
Change in academic math achievement over three years: -33 points

Applied Math:
Percentage of students achieving the provincial standard: 8%
Change in applied math achievement over three years: -9 points

Literacy:
Percentage of students who passed test on their first attempt: 77%
Change in literacy achievement over three years: +14 points

Student Population
Percentage of students who live in lower-income households: 25%
Percentage of students whose parents have some university education: 12%
Percentage of students who receive special education services: 14.4%
Percentage of students identified as gifted: 0.2%
Percentage of students who are new to Canada from non-English country: 0.1%
Percentage of students who are new to Canada from non-French country: 0.2%

EDIT: dronon has pointed me to another metric, that gives Delta an overall academic ranking of 2.3 out of 10.

We live in the poorest educational catchment area in the country, populated mainly by white blue collar workers. But, I like it here. It's quiet, low crime, fairly low unemployment.

The 0.2% Gifted student number is likely about the same as it was when I attended, 1988 - 1992. At that time, out of a student population of 1500, only a dozen kids seemed to be active in the program at any given time. I got a lot of free slacking time on the Learning Resource Room Macs.

And look at me today! Slacking on a PC! After just 15 years of undistinguished, unremarkable office work, small-town journalism, corporate reporting, and an extremely lack-luster university career!

It just goes to show you, you know. Even if you go to a bad school in a poor neighbourhood, with a little laziness and a C- average you can drift vaguely through. Mainly because the teachers figure you're better off drawing RPG dungeons during chemistry class than smoking pot in the Boy's Room.

Also, I must admit that attending a blue-collar white bread school sort of proved the truth of Thrasybulus advice to Tyrants. A lot of friends who went to high schools in more affluent or integrated areas seem to have a ton of horror stories from high school. I don't, really. But then, I was pretty clueless, so perhaps all sorts of things were happening I just didn't notice.

Comments

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I'm aware of that potential - my wife is a teacher, too.

That said, well... the numbers are what the numbers are. If the data exists, it should be available as a public resource, same as any other demographic. And, the sort of parents who are likely to research a school or send their kid will do so in any case, based on reputation and appearance if they don't have stats.

At the same time, there should be more than raw data. The numbers are not the school.