The possible publication of a public “ranking list” of schools, which will make it possible to compare establishments based on government data, is causing an outcry in the school network.
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“We really don’t agree, it’s not a good idea,” said Nicolas Prévost, president of the Fédération québécoise des directions d’establishment d’enseignement, which represents the majority of school principals in Province.
The Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, unveiled his new education dashboard on Sunday, which presents nine key indicators such as the graduation rate and the results of ministerial tests, by region and school service center.
However, Mr. Drainville intends to “eventually” make these same data public by school, in order to create “healthy emulation” in the school network where improvement necessarily requires comparison, he told the Journal.
Mr. Prévost, who is not opposed to the use of this data internally by Quebec, believes on the contrary that the publication of results by school could lead to several perverse effects, starting with unhealthy competition between establishments.
The story is similar among the teaching unions, who fear that this “prize list” will put even more pressure on the shoulders of teachers and further accentuate the phenomenon of “shopping” in secondary schools, to the detriment of schools. of area.
Comparing schools with each other can be a very thankless exercise, points out Josée Scalabrini, president of the Federation of Education Unions.
“Are we going to take into account the reality of the environments? Are we going to take resources into account?” she asks.
The School Together movement, which has been denouncing the abuses of three-speed schools for years, is also urging the minister to abandon this idea. A ranking “would only tell us which schools selected the best students,” says its coordinator, Stéphane Vigneault.
For her part, the president of the Federation of Parents’ Committees, Mélanie Laviolette, also expresses serious reservations on this subject. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea,” she says.
The Federation of School Service Centers also expressed serious reservations on this subject. “The use of data to improve our practices and our results remains the objective to achieve. This is why creating a ranking of educational establishments without taking into account their specific characteristics should be avoided,” indicated its president and CEO, Caroline Dupré, in a written statement.
Dashboard
The publication of data by school service center and the use of more detailed figures internally by the ministry are, however, better received in the school network.
However, it remains to be seen what the concrete impact of this new dashboard will be on students.
The representative of school management believes that this “modernization” of the school network will “not change much” on a daily basis. “We are already analyzing all this data with our school teams. When we see difficulties, we already add resources according to the means we have,” indicates Mr. Prévost.
The story is similar among teachers’ unions. “Teachers know their students and their needs,” says Mélanie Hubert, president of the Autonomous Education Federation.
“Will the minister be able to use this data to better distribute resources? That remains to be seen,” she lets fall.
For her part, solidarity MP Ruba Ghazal also asked the minister to backtrack regarding the possible dissemination of data by school. “The priority is to put teachers in classes and provide services to all students who need them, not to put in place another ranking which risks exacerbating the inequalities already present. The School Rankings have existed for 25 years, and the situation has been getting worse in the education network for 25 years,” she said.