BY VICKI GILHULA
Only one school in Northern Ontario got a perfect score of 10 and made first place on The Fraser Institute’s latest report card of Ontario elementary school rankings.
Sudbury’s École public Hélène-Gravel, which is located off Kelly Lake Rd., ranked first out of 2,818 schools. It shares the top spot in Ontario with 28 other schools mostly located in the GTA.
It is only one of a few French schools to get a perfect score. Of the 29 with perfect scores, 19 are public schools and 10 are separate schools.
A second Sudbury French school, Saint-Dominique, got a score of 9.1 and finished in the Top 100 in the province. Saint-Dominique is located on Montfort St. in New Sudbury.
The city’s English schools did not fare as well on the report card, with several scoring less than four and appearing near the bottom of the ratings.
The annual report analyzes and ranks 2,818 English and French, public and separate elementary schools across Ontario. The results are based on Education Quality and Accountability (EQAO) tests in Grades 3 and 6. Testing is done in reading, writing and mathematics.
In a published statement, Conseil Scolaire Public du Grand Nord de l’ Ontario’s director of education, Louise d’Amour, said “CSPGNO is proud of the outstanding success of students of École publique Hélène-Gravel. The Fraser Report clearly demonstrates the exemplary level of achievement of students. CSPGNO will continue to strive for success for all of its students giving them the necessary tools to attain their own individual goals. ”
By studying the techniques used in successful schools, others can find ways to improve.”
However, Dena Morrison, chair of the Rainbow District School Board says, “Ranking schools has no value. They tell you nothing.”
This is also the opinion of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, she said.
Test results are to be used to improve the performances of “student by student, class by class or school by school,” not as a measure of one school being better than another, she said.
Tests do not take into account factors such as level of support from parents, resources or the profile of the school, she said.
She added her opinion of The Fraser Insitute’s report card would be the same even if Rainbow Board schools got perfect scores.
Only schools that administer the EQAO tests can be included in the report card, so not all schools in Ontario are ranked by The Fraser Insitute.
The full report can be viewed at www.fraserinstitute.ca.
