École Secondaire du Sacré-Coeur in Sudbury has been ranked the third fastest improving secondary school in the province, according to the Fraser Institute's study in education policy.
"Secondary schools in all corners of Ontario are showing signs of improvement, but far too many schools aren’t improving at all, or worse, have declined in their overall ratings," said news release the Fraser Institute.
Sacré-Coeur improved their rating from 3.4 over the past five years to 5.2 in 2015-16. Of the 10 fastest improving secondary schools in Ontario, none are in Toronto or even the Greater Toronto Area.
The two fastest improving schools in Ontario are École Secondaire Marie-Rivier in Kingston and West Ferris Secondary School in North Bay.
Despite the rapid improvement, Sacré-Coeur still ranks outside of the top 500, at 530, moving up from 593 out of 740 schools that were ranked.
Among the Greater Sudbury secondary schools, Marymount Academy ranks at the top at 8.4 out of 10, while Lo-Ellen Park received a rating of 7.7. Marymount's 8.4 rating is good enough for 35th in the province, and they also saw a marked improvement from a 7.8 rating a year ago.
Taking a slip in the rankings was Macdonald-Cartier, which fell from a 4.5 rating in 2015 to 2.8 in 2016. College Notre-Dame also slipped from a 5.5 in 2015 to 3.4 in 2016.
The Fraser Institute's report card on Ontario’s secondary schools ranks 740 anglophone and francophone public and Catholic schools (as well as a small number of independent
and First Nations schools) based on seven academic indicators from results of annual province-wide math and literacy tests.
While 59 schools showed improvement in their overall ratings over the past five years, 51 showed declining scores.
“All too often we hear excuses that schools can’t improve their students’ performance because of the communities they serve, but there are success stories across Ontario where teachers with students that face challenges every day nonetheless find ways to help their students improve,” said Peter Cowley, director of School Performance Studies at the Fraser Institute.
The full report can be found here.
