"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

[commanderteddog.livejournal.com]

The gifted program might as well not existed while I was there. I was borderline gifted, which was frustrating. I was a point or two off of the "gifted" title, meaning that I was grouped with the other students. Given what the baseline was for students, I spent a lot of time BORED.

I got a higher average than you, though, because I needed to prove myself to I could force the system to work for me. Like... setting my own essay topics on topics I enjoyed, while faking it with ones that I didn't. I was the jerk who would get 81% in classes where I didn't hand in major projects. That's just the magic that is Delta.

Overall, I agree with the reference to Thrasybulus. There was some minior friction, but the VP was actually very good at keeping it the pressure under control and there were no major blowups. On the same token, I think that the teachers were aware of the problems that many of the students, but they didn't really... fear each other? I guess? Some of my favourite teachers would chat with students about warefare checks, home stresses, the finer points of alcohol, even pot use in some cases (I know at least three of my teachers talked about using pot in class) and it would be like two peers talking with each other.

I ususually got along more with the teachers who were more open about their enjoyment of fandom, heeeeeh.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I think the only teachers I ever really talked to as people were Mrs. Bray and Ms. Skilnyk. Mrs. Bray because she liked to talk about herself and the things she wanted to do in her life, and Ms. Skilnyk because she was interested in what her students did, and liked to be connected. I think I taught her about anime. Or rather, Japanimation, since it was 1991. Of course, my knowledge was terribly limited, since there was no Internet at that time... but I'd watched Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend video several times, and she let me make bootleg copies of Akira in the editing suite.

[dronon.livejournal.com]

Interesting... I should post the info from my local high schools. Where did you find the ranking information?

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Here you go!
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/sift/indexSec.asp

[dronon.livejournal.com]

Ah, I misread your original message; you remember the ranking information from elsewhere. Anyway, biased it may be, I found more recent rankings from The Fraser Institute (http://www.fraserinstitute.org/reportcards/schoolperformance/ontario.htm).

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Hey, Delta got an overall academic rating of 2.3/10 for 2007! Woot!

[commanderteddog.livejournal.com]

You would have liked Ms Arndt. She was bestest buddies with Skilnyk and I swear the two plotted together.

Skilnyk let me make boots of Prisoners of Gravity episodes and Arndt let me borrow TV shows from the Board of Ed's library. :D

Heheh

[pxtl.livejournal.com]

I went through the gifted program in Westdale. You're doing a lot better than many of my old compatriots. I mean yeah, there are some guys with doctorates and degrees and qualifications as long as your arm, but a lot of other guys who still never learned any motivation because school never got difficult.

/wasting time
//software developer

[anidada.livejournal.com]

The Fraser Institute doesn't have all the schools on record, however. My daughter's school, for instance, is notably absent.

[angelus-luna.livejournal.com]

The problem with the Ministry's ranking is the potential for it to be misused. A lot of parents, fearful of whatever, can use that information to decide what school their child attends or where they will move. So schools that have a high population of ESL students, lower income families, students who can't pass the various standardized tests, high number of special needs students...in other words, things people would see as "problems", these schools could potentially suffer as parents decide that they don't want their kid going to "that kind" of school.

And I'm only saying this as the majority of students I teach are at my school because their parents are fearful or distrustful of public education anyhow - so I am well aware of how prejudices, ignorance, or fear can sway a parent's decision as to where their child receives an education.

[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.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Also - Hi! I believe I met you briefly at FanExpo, one year!

Re: Heheh

[pyat.livejournal.com]

WESTDALE! You guys are all gay, I hear! We totally beat you at... um...

Not sports...
Not academics..

Oh, right. We Deltoids know how to keep it real. I think that involves beer and sitting on a porch.

[hossblacksilver.livejournal.com]

The thing I found interesting about the high school I ended up attending that a few of my teachers where students of an aunt of mine.

After she retired, she moved closer to her daughter in South Carolina and I only found out a few weeks ago (by complete accident) that she had passed away last year.