DATA SOURCES:

Early Development Index (EDI, 1996)

The EDI is a teacher-completed survey that aims to examine how ready kindergarten children are for elementary school. The EDI is used to monitor disparities in early child development and to strategize ways to reduce these disparities through social planning, resource allocation and community awareness. The EDI consists of five areas of competence based on indicators of a child’s readiness for school. The five areas are:

• Physical health and well-being (Physical)
• Social competence (Social)
• Emotional maturity (Emotional)
• Language and cognitive development (Language)
• Communication skills and general knowledge (Communication)

EDI Data Sources

• Enumeration areas (EA) boundaries, 1996
• EDI scores for EAs, 1996
• Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) Census data for EAs, 1996

High School Academic Outcomes (1996)

High school outcomes are calculated by the Fraser Institute (see Table 1). The Fraser Institute ranks schools based on the following five indicators of school performance:

• the average provincial examination mark
• the percentage of provincial examinations failed
• the difference between the school mark and examination mark in provincially examinable courses
• the number of provincially examinable courses taken per student
• the graduation rate

The Fraser Institute also includes an overall rating for each school which averages the five indicators. It is important to recognize that this data is a ranking of academic performance, not the quality of education provided to students. The Fraser Institute Ranking has been highly criticized for this focus on academic performance which is not considered to always accurately reflect quality of education.

Table 1

• Orange – low income
• Yellow - low to mid mixed income
• Turquoise – high mixed income
• Blue – high income

High School Data Sources

• Fraser Institute Ranking data for High School Catchment Areas (HSCA), 1996
• GVRD census data for EAs, 1996
• HSCA boundary polygons
• HSCA centroid points

Census Data Source

• 1996 Statistics Canada Data –For details refer to GWR methodology section