Article in Vancouver Province regarding Fraser Institute Secondary Report card

Poor kids, the argument goes, clearly can’t keep up, so stop talking about their failure…

In Better Schools for B.C.: A Plan for Quality Public Education, the BCTF states that “a child’s performance in school is strongly related to socio-economic status and that a good education is often the only means of breaking the cycle of poverty for poor children.” …

The reality is, no matter who forms government, eliminating poverty and low income levels is a long-term goal that won’t happen overnight. Asking these teens to wait isn’t fair. And, it’s self-defeating to push the problem outside of the schools.

For these teens, their future inability to support a family, build savings, and retire will be largely a legacy of an education system that failed them. With a decline in the number of jobs available in B.C.’s forestry and fishing sectors — where past generations of non-academic kids could earn a good living — preparing students for “knowledge jobs” is now an essential, basic responsibility of public education.

According to Statistics Canada, 35 per cent of B.C.’s 25- to 34-year-olds hold no post-secondary certification at all. No one wins if that’s replicated for another generation.

What we’re most interested in is to spark discourse about the class divide in B.C.’s public education. Are B.C. educators, parents, employers and politicians satisfied that so many teens from lower-income schools are dropping out and failing? Who, locally, can demonstrate a successful strategy for change? And, most importantly, for those students who have left school before graduation, what would have made the difference?

Even within East Van, one school does surprisingly well: Vancouver Technical. With a parental income of just $39,700, it’s one of the poorest in the province. Yet, the students’ provincial exam marks exceed the provincial average (69.3 per cent, up six points over five years ago), the delayed advancement rate is relatively low for the area (23.1 per cent) and the provincial exam failure rate is also low (nine per cent, compared to 19 per cent five years ago). What is Van Tech doing right? And are teachers and administrators at other schools willing to learn from Van Tech?

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