Schools here have received mixed reviews from the Fraser Institute’s report card on Ontario’s elementary schools, which was released in February.
The annual report card rates and ranks 2,786 English and French, public, and separate elementary schools from across Ontario.
The foundation of the report card is an overall rating of each school’s academic performance for 2007. Using data on student results provided by Ontario’s Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO), each school is rated on a scale from zero to 10.
Each school’s rating is based on nine indicators of school performance, including reading, writing, and mathematics for grades 3 and 6; and the percentage of EQAO assessments that did not meet the provincial standard.
This annual report card is an easily accessible public document that allows anyone to analyze and compare the performance of individual schools. Parents often consult the report card when they are choosing a school and use it as an annual audit of how their children’s school is doing academically.
“The report card is the only readily available tool that allows parents to see how their children’s schools are doing, whether or not they are improving, and how they compare to other schools in the community,” said Peter Cowley, the institute’s director of school performance studies and co-author of the report card.
“The report card is becoming increasingly popular as more and more parents, as well as educators, turn to it as a valuable source of information.
“Last year alone, almost 200,000 Ontario elementary report card files were downloaded from the Fraser Institute’s web site.”
Drayton Heights
Drayton Heights Public School was the highest scoring school in Mapleton Township for the second year in a row.
But it’s overall rating of 7.4 out of 10 was down from its 2006 score of 8.6.
The 2007 results secured the school 573rd place ranking out of 2,786 – a noticeable drop from its 2006 ranking of 159th. Drayton Heights had 20.5% of its tests score below the provincial standard, up from the 14.9% in 2006.
The school received a “B” in reading and an “A” in math (in 2006 it received two “A’s”).
Maryborough
Maryborough Public School in Moorefield received an overall rating of 6.3, a big drop from its rating the previous two years of 8.8 and 8.4.
The 6.3 rating ranks the school 1,238th out of 2,786; far lower than the 2006 ranking of 202nd. Maryborough had 30.5% of tests below the provincial standard – as opposed to just 17.9% in 2006.
The school received a “B” for it’s reading grade, and a “C” in math. In 2006 it received an “A” and “B” respectively.
Alma
Alma Public School received an overall rating of 5.5, about the same as its 2006 score of 5.4, but a noticeable decline from its 2005 grade of 7.0 (and from its highest ever rating of 8.3 in 2001).
The school placed 1,737th overall and had 37% of tests below the provincial standard, similar to last year’s numbers.
Alma Public School received a “C” in reading and an “A” in math (in 2006 the school received two “B’s”).
Centre Peel
The overall rating at Centre Peel Public School in Drayton almost doubled in 2007, rising from 1.8 in 2006 to 3.4 last year. In 2003 and 2004 the rating was 3.6 before lowering to 1.8 in 2005 and 2006.
The school placed 2,551st in the province. Almost 52% of tests at the school were below provincial standards, while in 2006 that figure was almost 63%.
In 2007 the school was given a “B” grade in reading and an “A” in math – a great improvement over the two “D’s” received in 2006.
For more information on the 2007 Report Card, visit www.fraserinstitute.ca.
