Peter Cowley

Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute

Peter Cowley is a Senior Fellow and former Director of School Performance Studies at the Fraser Institute. He has a B.Comm. from the University of British Columbia (1974). In 1994, Mr Cowley independently wrote and published The Parent's Guide, a popular handbook for parents of British Columbia's secondary-school students. The Parent's Guide web site replaced the handbook in 1995. In 1998, Mr Cowley was co-author of the Fraser Institute's A Secondary Schools Report Card for British Columbia, the first of the Institute's continuing series of annual reports on school performance. This was followed in by The 1999 Report Card on British Columbia's Secondary Schools, Boys, Girls, and Grades: Academic Gender Balance in British Columbia's Secondary Schools, and The 1999 Report Card on Alberta's High Schools. Since then, Mr Cowley has co-authored all of the Institute's annual Report Cards. Annual editions now include Report Cards on elementary and secondary schools in British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario and on secondary schools in Quebec.

Recent Research by Peter Cowley

— Oct 8, 2024
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Report Card on Alberta’s High Schools 2024

Report Card on Alberta’s High Schools 2024 ranks 292 public, Catholic, independent and charter secondary schools based on eight academic indicators generated from Grade 12 provincewide testing, grade-to-grade transition and graduation rates.

— Sep 4, 2024
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Report Card on Alberta’s Elementary Schools 2024

The Report Card on Alberta's Elementary Schools 2024 ranks 729 public, separate, independent and charter schools based on eight academic indicators derived from provincewide test results—and finds that​ contrary to common misconceptions, the data suggest every school can improve regardless of type, location, and student characteristics.

— Aug 29, 2024
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Report Card on Ontario’s Elementary Schools 2024

Report Card on Ontario's Elementary Schools, 2024 ranks 3021 public, Catholic, and independent elementary schools based on nine academic indicators derived from provincewide test results, finding that regardless of type, location, and student characteristics, the data suggest every school can improve.