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Path: utzoo!utcsstat!laura
From: laura@utcsstat.UUCP (Laura Creighton)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Private school tax deduction vs NEA
Message-ID: <1453@utcsstat.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 20-Nov-83 02:09:48 EST
Article-I.D.: utcsstat.1453
Posted: Sun Nov 20 02:09:48 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 20-Nov-83 03:53:36 EST
References: <750@ihuxl.UUCP>, <495@dciem.UUCP>
Organization: U. of Toronto, Canada
Lines: 41

Martin,
At least in Toronto it is *already* decided how well the private schools
measure up. One of the great secrets (which various U of T officials
do not admit to) is that all schools are not graded equally. A 90%
from Upper Canada College is unheard of. Even 80% are rare. If you
are getting a 70% average then you are doing very well, since they
tend to produce lots of 50-69% average.

On the other hand, at least 6 years ago, everybody knew that if you
transferred to York Mills (a public High School) and stayed away
from their killer theatre arts program then if you did not get an
80 average then you were a fool. There were lots of 90s.

Now, when somwebody like U of T says "you need a 74 average to get in"
they do not quite mean this. For they will let people in from UCC
with a considerably lower average. (and a darn good thing, or else
nobody from UCC would be let in!)

What a lot of people think we need are Departmentals. (for you Americans
who are looking goggle-eyed at all this, yes, what I am saying is that
there is no country-, province-, or city-wide exams.) The idea that a
90 from any school is as good as a 90 from any other does not wash.
You would either have to phone up certain schools and say "look even
if the student gets perfect on every assignment, test, and exam you
can only give him an 80 because your school isn't worth any more"
of tell UCC that it has to give all of its students 100, regardless of
effort, since they are over-taught.

These days you get "the Canadian basic Skills tests" which get administered
every so often and can tell how you measure up against all the other
Canadians taking the test.

With Departementals you could differentiate the good schools from the bad
schools. This means that if you could select the best school for your
children. 

It would, however, mean that the disparities would grow. Some people
are opposed to this. 

Laura Creighton
utzoo!utcsstat!laura