How Fraser Valley school rankings actually work

What the rating out of 10 actually measures

When people say a school "scores 8 out of 10," they mean its Fraser Institute Overall rating. For elementary schools, that number comes entirely from one source: the province-wide Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA), a set of literacy and numeracy tests BC students write in grade 4 and grade 7. No teacher reviews, no parent surveys, no arts or athletics, just standardized test results, processed into a single score.

The 2025 report builds that score from eight indicators. The four average FSA test scores carry the most weight at 45%. The share of tests rated below expectations counts for another 25%. Tests that weren't written (students absent, exempted, or who skipped) make up 10%, and grade-7 gender gaps in literacy and numeracy account for the last 10% (Fraser Institute, 2025). The Overall rating answers one question the institute states plainly: "In general, how is the school doing academically compared to other schools in the Report Card?"

How many schools are ranked, and the secondary gap

The Report Card on British Columbia's Elementary Schools 2025 rates 1,015 public and independent schools, 679 that enroll both grade 4 and grade 7, and 336 smaller schools that don't enroll grade 7 (Fraser Institute, 2025). That's the current, up-to-date list.

Secondary schools are a different story. The most recent Report Card on British Columbia's Secondary Schools is the 2020 edition, which ranked 252 schools using provincial exam results, grade-to-grade transition rates, and graduation rates. The Fraser Institute has not published a newer BC secondary report since (compareschoolrankings.org). So any secondary rating you find for a BC high school is at least five years old. We label every secondary rating on these pages with the 2020 year so you know what you're looking at.

What the number does not tell you

The Fraser Institute is upfront about the limits of its own product. Its reports state that "the choice of a school should not be made solely on the basis of any one source of information," and recommend a tour of each school and an interview with the principal, because "a sound academic program should be complemented by effective programs in areas of school activity not measured by the Report Card" (Fraser Institute, 2025).

In plain terms: the rating won't tell you whether your child's specific teacher is excellent, whether the school has a strong French immersion or trades program, how big the classes are, or how well it supports a student with a learning difference. Two schools a block apart can post very different FSA scores and offer a nearly identical day-to-day experience for your kid.

The criticism worth knowing

The rankings have drawn steady criticism from parent advisory councils and teachers' groups. The common objections: a quarter of the score is the share of tests "below expectations," which critics say counts low scores twice; another 10% is tests not written, which penalizes schools with lower FSA participation; and the remaining indicators correlate heavily with the income of the surrounding neighbourhood rather than anything the school controls (SD57 DPAC).

There's a fair point buried in there for home buyers. A high rating often tracks a higher-income catchment, which usually means higher home prices. When you "buy into a top school," a good part of what you're paying for is the neighbourhood the test scores reflect, not a guarantee of a better classroom.

How we tell Fraser Valley buyers to use the rankings

Use the rating as one input, never the whole decision. We tell families to start with the number, then do three things it can't do for them: visit the actual school and talk to the office, confirm the current catchment with the district (a strong school is often full, see our catchments guide), and weigh commute, budget, and lifestyle honestly against the ranking.

In our experience, the families who do best are the ones who treat schools as one factor in a home they can actually afford and enjoy living in. The ones who chase a single ranking number into a longer commute or a stretched budget tend to regret it within a year. A good school in a home that works for your life beats a top-ranked school in a home that doesn't.

Where this fits in the bigger picture

This page is the "how to read the data" layer of our Fraser Valley schools hub. From here, the city guides put the rankings to work: see the top-rated schools and catchment notes for Surrey, Langley, Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Mission, and Maple Ridge. If your kids are closer to graduation, the post-secondary guide maps the Valley's colleges and universities.