The Fraser Institute is out with this year's rating of B.C.’s secondary schools and some of the results are unusual.
The institute’s Peter Cowley says staff weren't surprised to find private schools are still some of the top performing schools.
But he says they were astonished that 19 of the 42 schools with declining performances are from the Lower Mainland.
"The fastest improving school was Lake Cowichan in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, and Fraser Valley and southern British Columbia, as well as Vancouver and the coast saw a lot more improvement than the Lower Mainland did.”
Only six of the 26 schools that improved in B.C. fell within the urban centre.
Cowley adds family income is not the only factor in a school's performance.
In the consistently improving Cowichan Valley, the average parental annual income is $39,000.
Susan Lambert, president of the BC Teachers Federation, says the rankings are unreliable because they are based on standardized tests.
"Success on standardized tests means that you are successful on achieving a very, very narrow proportion of the curriculum. So that success, if you want to call it that, is not something to be particularly proud of.”