THUNDER BAY -- An official with Lakehead Public Schools says she doesn’t put much stock in the Fraser Institute’s annual ranking of Ontario elementary schools.
Superintendent Sherri-Lynne Pharand said the right-wing think tank’s methodology is questionable and secretive, making it difficult to accept the results, which showed seven of the top 10 spots locally awarded to Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board schools.
“We don’t review in great detail the Fraser Institute rankings. We do have a lot of data that we collect that we use with our schools to improve learning,” Pharand said on Monday, more than a day after the rankings were released.
“We use not only the EQAO, but teacher assessments that happen in the classroom every day. And we use those in order to help each child improve over time. We believe that those are the most important assessments that happen in our schools.”
Regardless of the rankings, Pharand said the public board works with each of its schools to determine areas in need of improvement and set in place measures to help them monitor success over time.
“We do revisit all of the strengths of the school and certainly we identity areas they’re still working on and put supports in place to help them with those.”
The Catholic board’s St. Margaret School and the Lakehead board’s Crestview Public School topped the 2015 Fraser Institute list, placing 172nd in Ontario out of 3,037 schools surveyed with an 8.4 score (out of 10).
St. Francis was a close third at 8.3, while Holy Cross School (7.7) was fourth. Woodcrest Public School was fifth, checking fourth with a score of 7.5.
TBCDSB superintendent Omer Belisle said while they’re pleased with the overall results, he’s not going to read too much into them.
“We’re very pleased with the results, obviously. But it’s important for us to stay humble when they go public. It’s also important to stay hungry and focused on areas where we can improve,” Belisle said.
Over the past several years the Catholic board has undertaken a number of initiatives, including equipping most classrooms with computer-driven technology.
Even little things can make a difference, said Belisle, pointing to St. Margaret School, which jumped 1.8 points over its 2014 score.
“We’ve had a few strategies and initiatives at St. Margaret, particularly the parent-engagement program and a few other initiatives around the school-improvement programming that’s done very well,” Belisle said.
Lakehead Public Schools’ McKellar Park Central earned the dubious distinction of finishing 32nd of 32 schools surveyed, with a score of 3.0, a 0.2 improvement over the previous year.
It’s not a true indication of the school’s performance, said Pharand, acknowledging the board does not rank schools internally.
“Just like all of our schools, we’re very proud of McKellar. I know that the staff there is working hard to support the students each day … They have plans in place to help students. They also have plans in place to really engage parents and families,” Pharand said.
The Fraser Institute rankings take into consideration province-wide testing in reading, writing and mathematics, as well as external factors like socio-economic standing.
Here’s a complete list of the local results (2015 results/2014 results):
1. St. Margaret School (8.4/6.6)
1. Crestview Public School (8.4/6.8)
3. St. Francis School (8.3/8.0)
4. Holy Cross School (7.7/7.3)
5. Woodcrest Public School (7.5/6.6)
T6. St. Thomas Aquinas School (7.2/7.6)
T6. Nor’Wester View Public School (7.2/7.2)
T8. St. Paul School (7.1/8.0)
T8. St. Elizabeth School (7.1/6.5)
T10. Corpu Christi School (7.0/7.3)
T10. St. Ann School (7.0/n/a)
T10. St. Vincent School (7.0/n/a)
13. Our Lady of Charity School (6.8/4.9)
T14. St. Bernard Schoos (6.5/6.6)
T14. Five Mile Public School (6.5/6.5)
16. Agnew H. Johnston Public School (6.4/6.4)
T17. Edgewater Park Public School (6.3/6.3)
T17. St. Pius X School (6.3/7.0)
19. Claude E. Garton Public School (6.0/5.3)
T20. Ecole Gron Morgan (5.8/6.4)
T20. Ecole Franco-Superieur (5.8/5.6)
T20. Vance Chapman Public School (5.8/4.9)
23. Valley Central Public School (5.7/5.0)
24. Westmount Public School (5.4/5.9)
T25. Algonquin Avenue Public School (5.3/4.4)
T25. Ogden Community Public School (5.3/4.3)
T25. C.D. Howe Public School (5.3/n/a)
28. St. Jude School (4.8/4.7)
29. St. Martin School (4.6/5.6)
30. St. James Public School (4.5/n/a)
31. Sherbrooke Public School (3.4/n/a)
32. McKellar Park Central Public School (3.0/2.8)
