THUNDER BAY – The Lakehead District School Board’s superintendent of education is adamant the Fraser Institute’s rankings do not paint a complete picture of the quality of education offered in city public high schools.
Sherri-Lynne Pharand on Monday responded to the annual rankings of the province’s high schools from the think-tank, which listed all four city secondary schools outside the top 400 in Ontario.
Hammarskjold High School was the first Lakehead board school on the list, in 406th with a score of 6.1 out of 10. Sir Winston Churchill Collegiate and Vocational Institute followed in 455th with 5.8, ahead of Westgate Collegiate and Vocational Institute and Superior Collegiate and Vocational Institute which were 489th and 512th respectively with scores of 5.6 and 5.4.
“We constantly measure and monitor the success of all of our schools. It’s an annual report and one piece of information. We use many pieces of information in order to measure our student success,” Pharand said.
“The critical way to track and monitor our student progress is in the classroom every day and the assessments teachers do working with children in order to determine their strengths, areas for growth and their next steps.”
Pharand said the board examines results such as the Education Quality and Accountability Office’s standardized Grade 9 math test, the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test, report cards and credit accumulation data.
That information is then used to develop strategies unique to each individual school to improve results.
“I think one of the things is we’re always looking for critical improvement. Part of what we do each year is establish a school improvement plan,” she said.
“We look at what the students do really well and where it is our students need additional support and then we make a plan for that year to provide the additional supports for students.”
Trustees in March received mid-year data reports that outlined a number of performance markers, such as Grade 9 English and Mathematics results. In the first semester of this school year 43 per cent of Grade 9 academic math students achieved at least a Level 4, and 39 per cent of Grade 9 academic English students achieved the same result.
As well, the board received information from the Ministry of Education that 71 per cent of students that entered Grade 9 during the 2009-2010 school year had graduated and received a high school diploma within five years.
The Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board fared slightly better, with St. Ignatius High School ranked as the city’s top performing secondary school with a score of 7.1, placing 198th in the province.
This marked the third consecutive year and fourth in the past five St. Ignatius was at the front of the pack.
The board’s second school, St. Patrick High School, was 502nd on the list with a score of 5.5.
J.P Tennier, superintendent of secondary schools, said the Catholic board uses the report to help gauge ways to improve.
“We’re always looking at our student achievement and we’re always trying to do the best we can. We’re looking at raising our levels everywhere,” Tennier said.
“We use attitudinal scores. We look at exit surveys also. We talk to our students, we talk to our parents and we look at those types of anecdotal comments that go a long way with our achievement.”
