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Leading the pack

Corpus Christi Elementary School gets top nod locally in the Fraser Institute’s latest rankings of Ontario’s elementary schools. The school’s rating jumped 0.6 points to 7.
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Corpus Christi School (Matt Vis, tbnewswatch.com)

Corpus Christi Elementary School gets top nod locally in the Fraser Institute’s latest rankings of Ontario’s elementary schools.

The school’s rating jumped 0.6 points to 7.7 in figures released Sunday by the Canadian think-tank and helped them overtake Holy Family School and St. Paul School, the No. 1 and 2 facilities in the last elementary school rankings.

The Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board holds down the top three rankings and nine of the top 10 in the city, with Holy Family checking in second with a 7.6 score, down 0.5 from 2013.

The newly renovated St. Bernard was tied for second with a 7.6 score, good for 495th out of 3,030 schools on the list.

Nor’wester View is the highest listed Lakehead Public Schools elementary school, scoring 7.4, 613th best in the province.
St. Francis and St. Paul schools round out the top five.

At the other end of the scale, McKellar Park School is the lowest rated school in Thunder Bay, with a 2.4 score, 2,924th in Ontario, according to the Fraser Institute. The bottom five includes C.D. Howe (2,429), Ogden Community (2,609), Sherbrooke (2.695) and Our Lady of Charity (1,792).

The 2014 report card ranks 3,030 elementary schools across the province based on nine academic indicators.

The methodology focuses on results from province-wide testing in reading, writing and math administered by the Education Quality and Accountability Office.

"By pinpointing the subject areas where individual schools improve or decline, and by demonstrating how a school's academic performance compares to other Ontario schools, our report helps educators help kids be more successful in the classroom," said Peter Cowley, Fraser Institute director of school performance studies.

The report card also includes information about each school’s make-up, including parental income, percentage of English as a second language students and the percentage of special needs students.

Cowley said schools can succeed despite low average incomes and other perceived barriers.

"Whatever a school's student make-up, whether there are lots of ESL or special needs kids, or the students come from families of modest means, schools can always improve student academic performance and perform very well," Cowley said.

The local list:

  • Corpus Christi (7.7)
  • Holy Family (7.6)
  • St. Bernard (7.6)
  • Nor'wester View (7.4)
  • St. Francis (7.3)
  • St. Paul (7.2)
  • Holy Cross (7.2)
  • St. Margaret (7.1)
  • St. Thomas Aquinas (7.0)
  • St. Pius X (7.0)
  • Edgewater Park (6.9)
  • Five Mile (6.9)
  • St. Ann (6.9)
  • Woodcrest (6.7)
  • Vance Chapman (6.6)
  • Ecole Gron Morgan (6.4)
  • Agnew H. Johnston (6.3)
  • Westmount (6.3)
  • St. Vincent (6.1)
  • Gorham and Ware (5.8)
  • St. Martin (5.6)
  • Franco-Superieur (5.6)
  • Valley Central (5.3)
  • Algonquin Avenue (5.3)
  • St. Jude (5.1)
  • St. James (4.8)
  • Claude E. Garton (4.7)
  • St. Elizabeth (4.6)
  • CD Howe (4.6)
  • Odgen Community (4.1)
  • Sherbrooke (3.8)
  • Our Lady of Charity (2.9)
  • McKellar Park Central (2.4)
     


Leith Dunick

About the Author: Leith Dunick

A proud Nova Scotian who has called Thunder Bay home since 2002, Leith is Dougall Media's director of news, but still likes to tell your stories too. Wants his Expos back and to see Neil Young at least one more time. Twitter: @LeithDunick
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