More grads, but not enough

OTTAWA -- The number of kids graduating from public schools in Manitoba soared faster than anywhere else in the country between 2002 and 2008.

That's the good news from a new Statistics Canada report.

The bad news is Manitoba is still bringing up the rear nationally when it comes to graduation rates.

The report, Summary Public School Indicators for Canada, the Provinces and Territories, looked at everything from enrolment and graduation rates to student-teacher ratios, education funding and teacher salaries.

It found 11,882 students graduated from public high schools in Manitoba in 2007-08, up more than 12 per cent since 2001. It was the biggest increase of any province and more than double the increase of 5.2 per cent nationwide in those six years.

"We think it reflects what we're investing in," said Manitoba Education Minister Nancy Allan. "We want more kids graduating."

Allan said a commitment to not just sustained funding but increases in education funding equal to or in excess of economic growth have helped schools and school divisions improve students' performances.

However, Manitoba continues to have the lowest graduation rate in the country at 65.1 per cent. The national rate is 71 per cent. Prince Edward Island has the highest rate at 84.3 per cent.

Bu that figure should be taken with many footnotes, cautions Riley Brockington, a survey manager and analyst with Statistics Canada.

The graduation-rate formula used in the report takes the number of students who graduated from public schools, adults who graduated after returning to high school and students graduating from vocational schools, and divides it by the number of 17- and 18-year-olds in the province.

It does not take into account students in private schools, or who graduate from schools not funded by the provincial government such as schools on reserves or home-schooled kids. Provinces with larger proportions of students outside the public system would not be easily compared to provinces where independent school enrolment is lower.

In Ontario for example, Catholic schools are considered fully public schools and graduates would be included in the Ontario figures. In Manitoba they are considered to be private schools and graduates from Catholic schools were not included.

"Manitoba has expressed some concern about the methodology," said Brockington.

The report showed enrolment in public schools in Manitoba was 179,320 students. That year there were 209,319 school-aged kids in Manitoba, says the report. It means about 30,000 school-aged kids that year were not accounted for in public school enrolments.

Brockington said the formula is used because it is in line with the statistics required by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development for use in international comparisons. He said Statistics Canada is working on including private school students in some way in the future.

Allan said Manitoba's own figure for our high school graduation rate is more accurate and informative. It takes all the students who graduate from a public or independent high school and divides it by the number of students enrolled in those schools four years earlier. That gives an indication of how many students who started high school, completed it four years later, said Allan.

In June 2009, the rate was 80.9 per cent, Allan said. That figure, reported by the province just a few weeks ago, shows 12,901 students graduated in 2008, compared to the 11,882 reported by Statistics Canada. It suggests Statistics Canada didn't capture over 1,000 graduates in its data.

Allan said the province is set to unveil a pilot project to improve graduation rates in three schools in the Winnipeg School Division.

The public school indicators also show Manitoba spends the second-most per student of any province, just $90 per student behind Alberta, and $318 more per student than the national average.

Manitoba also had the third-highest per capita spending on public education and the fifth-best student-to-teacher ratio.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 21, 2010 A3