BREAKING NEWS: the Internet is not a warm and fuzzy place dominated by photos of cute puppies frolicking with even cuter babies.
This recent article in the Globe & Mail brings to light a Realtor who gives her opinion on public schools, also known as “providing a service” and perhaps “doing her job.”
And yet, as with everything else in today’s society, there are people that are outraged…
“Real estate agent’s school opinions spark firestorm in GTA”
By: Greg McArthur
The Globe & Mail
She’s a real estate agent who calls herself Mississauga’s “#1 schools advisor,” a trusted hand for parents who want the best education for their children. But the Peel District School Board says she has offended teachers, principals and students in a quest to attract business.
Meet Susi Kostyniuk, who promotes herself as part saleswoman, part statistician – a cross between jeweller Russell “The Cashman” Oliver and pollster Nate Silver. Her website, Susihomes.com, is replete with what she calls data-derived assessments, sometimes harshly delivered, of the performance of every public and Catholic school in the suburb of Mississauga, and many other suburban communities west of Toronto. (Take, for example, her view of Brian W. Fleming Public School: “Quite obviously, there are better odds for your children probably anywhere in Mississauga.)
Although it’s not unusual for real estate agents to post test scores on their websites, Ms. Kostyniuk, has gone two steps further, devising her own methodology for ranking schools and then offering her candid opinions, often on video. Her system, she says, is supposed to take into account socio-economic factors to make the rankings fairer, but instead she has sparked a firestorm on websites popular with educators. While she is applauded by the likes of the Fraser Institute for trying to measure school performance, lawyers with the Peel District School Board are discussing how they can persuade her to cease and desist publishing her ranking system. “I think we’re going to appeal to her sense of good taste and respect and ask her to not do this to our schools,” said the board’s director of communications, Brian Woodland.
Ms. Kostyniuk declined to comment for this article, citing a barrage of complaints that she received after her website was recently featured on a Facebook forum for Ontario teachers, We Are the Frontlines in Education. “I’ve been up all night responding to them. It deterred my focus, focusing on my clients,” she said Sunday.
Her rankings rely primarily on the standardized tests administered by Ontario’s Education Quality and Accountability Office, but with a few twists. In an effort to identify underrated schools, she created what she calls the Teacher Difficulty Index.
While filming herself in promotional videos outside many of Mississauga’s schools, she says she encountered teachers and principals who revealed to her the four main factors that make a teacher’s job more difficult: lower household income levels, parental education, the number of single parent households in the neighbourhood and the number of ESL students. She purchased data about these factors from a polling company, and using a formula – she previously worked as a geomorphologist, her website says – came up with a list of schools that she believes are environments where it is more difficult to teach. From there she developed a “potency list” – schools that perform better than they should given the socio-economic factors in their neighbourhood.
Though he could not delve deeply into the accuracy of her methods, Peter Cowley of the Fraser Institute, said people like Ms. Kostyniuk should be applauded for trying to measure the performance of schools. The institute, a Conservative think tank, publishes an annual ranking of schools in Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario based on their standardized test scores.
“There’s a substantial need from parents for information about how schools do as it relates to where they want to live,” said Mr. Cowley.
But many teachers and Mississauga residents who live in neighbourhoods that received poor rankings disagree – especially over what Ms. Kostyniuk says constitutes a difficult teaching environment. One online commenter, Mark Newby, an executive at a footwear company, said in an interview that, as a divorced father, he found her criteria “incredibly misguided.”
“That comment about single parents, the suggestion that the children would be different from any other kids, was incredibly insulting,” Mr. Newby, 43, said.
For those of you that have been reading my blog for a few years now, do you remember when I wrote a post about The Foundry Lofts and compared the style of the atrium to Alcatraz?
Well, that didn’t go over well.
In fact, after 30-40 owners in the building filled my blog comment section with hate and vitriol, two of them wrote letters to my Broker.
I was somewhat surprised by the content of the letters, which basically said, “You can’t allow somebody to post something negative on the Internet.”
The Internet is not a happy place, and I’m constantly amazed when people, even if for a moment, believe it is.
Whether you think what Ms. Kostyniuk did was a) helpful, b) the worst thing ever done in the history of mankind, you’d be naive to think that something like this wouldn’t exist on the Internet.
But maybe the point to the outrage is that this was done by a Realtor. I think that some of the public believes that a Realtor shouldn’t do a, b, and c, for some reason, as was the case with my post on the Foundry Lofts, which was no different than a restaurant critic saying a steak was over-cooked, or Roger Ebert giving a movie two thumbs down.
Ms. Kostyniuk is providing her opinion on schools in the area, to people that want her opinion. Those that do NOT want her opinion, don’t have to take it. But for those people to be “outraged” that she is ranking schools is even more outrageous, in my opinion.
It’s like the parental-advisory groups that try to get television shows taken off TV, for the benefit of everybody in society, instead of just, you know, not watching.
If Ms. Kostyniuk wrote, “This school is bad because it’s full of black people, jews, immigrants, gays, people with disabilities, and several people not of white Aryan blood,” then okay, I see the point. Even still, those sentiments do exist on the Internet, about a million times over!
The article says, “But many teachers and Mississauga residents who live in neighbourhoods that received poor rankings disagree,” as if this is surprising!
Don’t you think the people that live in CityPlace disagree with my blog posts?
Don’t you think the producers of Zero Dark Thirty and Django Unchained disagree that “Argo” was the best picture of 2012?
I find the “outrage” to be laughable, and any parent that “disagrees” with Ms. Kostyniuk’s rankings should spend their time and energy helping their kids with their homework, rather than trying to defend ONE person’s self-described “opinion” on a school’s rankings.
I wish there were more people like Ms. Kostyniuk in organized real estate: not afraid to provide opinion, insight, and analysis, for FREE, to those that want it…
.
Oh, and P.S. –
Joe Q.
at 11:28 am
I think there are a few things going on here. One is that people (teachers, principals, sympathetic parents) tend to get defensive when others criticize their schools. Another factor is the inherently misleading nature of school evaluations — people read way more into them than they should (people forget that averages are just that, and that there is more to education than test scores) and when the evaluation method is opaque (as in this case) that only adds to the confusion. Add to all of this that the videos are done in the style of entertainment reportage — the Realtor stands in the empty school parking lot and delivers her assessment while holding a microphone with her logo on it — complete with skits and gags. To be honest, she comes across as a bit of a flake.
Everyone wants students to succeed, the controversy only comes when people try to assign blame for student under-achievement. There is a lot to criticize about the school system, but at the same time I think that many outside observers have a simplistic view of how it works, and I tend to give the teachers the benefit of the doubt.
Ideally, criticisms of this Realtor would come in the form of detailed rebuttals rather than “outrage”. That’s difficult to do here, though, given the way the videos are presented and the secretive nature of her statistical methods. In a way, I can’t blame teachers for being upset — I would be too if someone made a mocking, gag-filled video criticizing my workplace, without ever setting foot inside it or really talking to anyone who works there.
jeff316
at 1:03 pm
Joe’s post is excellent.
“I think that some of the public believes that a Realtor shouldn’t do a, b, and c, for some reason, as was the case with my post on the Foundry Lofts, which was no different than a restaurant critic saying a steak was over-cooked, or Roger Ebert giving a movie two thumbs down.”
But that’s the thing – it’s not the same, in any way. It is completely different.
Roger Ebert watched every movie he reviews. Restaurant critics eat in every restaurant they write up.
Realtors don’t live in every condo they review, and the realtor from the article above hasn’t worked in, visited, or attended any of those schools she’s reviewing.
Restaurant critics don’t review restaurants based on their menus or their yelp ratings. Ebert didn’t review movies based on their storyboard or an aggregate of reviews from the Times, Star and Chronicle-Herald. Because their role, their profile, and the professionalism that was the foundation of the public’s trust in them.
Plus, a negative restaurant or movie review affects a relatively small number of people, and prospective clients/movie goers can easily avoid movies and restaurants whose reviews they do not like.
A negative review of an entire condo or school affects a much larger number of people, and can contribute to much more far-reaching, long-lasting effects. And in many cases, the people who live in those condos or attend those schools don’t have the same ability/choice in where they live and where they go to school.
The real estate profession has gone to lengths to portray their agents as professionals. I’ve argued repeatedly against the lame-o hate-on for real estate agents that pervades any commentary on Toronto real estate, but agents like this school-reviewer remind the public that agents run the gamut from seasoned professionals to used car salesmen to Russell Olivers.
AndrewB
at 12:23 am
^ This. Couldn’t have said it any better myself.
Parents naturally want to put their kids into the best schools. Parents will purposely buy houses in particular areas so they live in particular jurisdictions to get into those schools. This realtor is capitalizing on this by ranking them by herself, and yet she’s not an educator or knows what a quality curriculum is. This realtor is in it to make money, to capitalize sales in good areas of Mississauga.
Where do we think she ranked the best schools? Obviously in areas like Lorne Park, Clarkson, Port Credit, etc. All the most expensive parts of Mississauga, because she has assumed that higher socioeconomic status equates to better students, better school funding and overall better outcomes for students.
jeff316
at 10:41 am
Thanks. To add, could you imagine if a teacher on the internet posted videos reviewing real estate brokerages, reporting from their parking lots with props and no sources/experiencenor an explainable rationale/methodology for their reviews? If they were on the end of a negative review, what do we think Bosley would do?
David Fleming
at 11:26 am
@ Jeff316
hahahaha now THAT would be something!
I kind of wish there were more video reviews of real estate brokerages…
ScottyP
at 2:32 am
jeff316, you and Joe Q. bring a tremendous amount of value to this blog. Your insight, while not always 100% on my wavelength, is always well thought-out and well appreciated.
Just wanted to get all warm and fuzzy for a moment there. Carry on.
jeff316
at 4:07 pm
Hey thanks. Your comments are always reasonable and wel-thoughtout. Group hug.
Hal 9000
at 11:24 am
Society is repletewith people that are pus*ies. That’s the bottom line. People cannot accept criticism. The difficult determination is the proverbial chicken and egg paradigm – did the youth of today reinforce this attitude on their parents/society, or did parents and elders instill these ideas to our young folks, whom are catered to by the MSM? We have a society full of politically correct, bureaucratic-dependent whiners propagating the nanny state, scoreless soccer games, and children dressed like NFL players just toride their bikes. Remember lawn darts? We turned out okay, folks.
IF statistical determinations such as race (among other things) affecting school quality prove to be non spurious and sound scientifically, then how can people be upset? Ahh but they are. Entitlement pathology again. If I were to say in print or publicly “statistically there are higher crime rates in areas predominantly populated with black people versus European heritage”, I would be shit on, and the cries of ‘racist; would fly. Why? What if it is true? Facts can sting that much? The beauty of science is that it is objective when done and analyzed properly. I don’t know enough about her to make that determination, but it seems like she is trying to be reasonably objective.
And the truth shall set you free…if you WAKE UP!!
ScottyP
at 2:25 am
First paragraph: Pretty good.
Second paragraph: Pretty awful.
Third paragraph (/finishing line): Totally whack.
A brush stroke, or 47, too many… can we get an edit?
AsianSensation
at 2:45 pm
Oh the delicious irony. Teachers grade students; ‘OK’.
Parents/Adults grade teachers; ‘Not OK’.
David Fleming
at 4:48 pm
In other news…
A friend of mine who is a teacher recieved this note in his mailbox yesterday, from the principal:
“Memo to all teachers – Jane Doe’s mother has called the school to inform us that Jane is not happy getting up in the morning and attending classes. Jane will no longer attend classes before 12pm. If you have Jane in your class, kindly put Jane’s daily work in an envelope and leave it at reception for Jane’s mother to pick up at the end of the week. There will be NO deductions for participation, or lack of work produced.”
Yeah. True story.
THIS is what the public school system has come to…
JoBu
at 8:09 am
This society is full of wimps. It’s just awful.
Another strong case for private schools.
ScottyP
at 2:27 am
I think your friend is exaggerating.
David Fleming
at 10:48 pm
@ ScottyP
110% accurate.
It’s worse, believe me. I hear a dozen stories like this, every year…
Joe Q
at 8:59 pm
Not quite the same thing — the teachers are in the class with the students day-in-day-out, while the adults aren’t. In this particular case, the adult has no connection with the teachers or the school at all, except to download their EQAO statistics, make gag videos and post them to Youtube.
AsianSensation
at 10:30 am
Based on the given metrics (from the school boards) she’s making an average assessment. Sure there’s outliers, but still, numbers don’t lie. Would you interpret the data differently?
jeff316
at 11:47 am
People use numbers to lie all the time. And even when they’re not being used for lying, they’re representative of only a tiny sliver of reality.
Joe Q.
at 12:34 pm
I have no idea if I’d interpret the data differently, because she doesn’t reveal how she’s interpreted the data.
ScottyP
at 1:41 am
She’s clearly a hack. ESL students are considered a negative? And here I thought “diversity” was the catchword of our times.
ScottyP
at 2:50 am
David,
We don’t really say it enough around here, but it’s pretty impressive that you can stay so topical, for so long, without skipping a beat (aside from your wedding and ensuing honeymoon, and even *then* you kept on posting away)… simply put, it has to be a significant challenge to keep coming up with interesting things to say, day after day. Kudos are in order.
But… (and isn’t there always a ‘but’?)… this lady is crap. Pure and simple. She is beneath this blog, and the (mostly) intelligent people who read and respond to it.
Yeah, yeah, I know, I know… I don’t have to read about it, or watch her ham-fisted attempts at providing a reputable perspective that is, in fact, drenched in bile-inducing dredge. But to my regret, I can’t unsee what I’ve seen.
Do better next time, for the love of God….