While the area's catholic school board is proud of one of its high schools cracking the top 100 in Ontario, there’s always more work to be done.
The Fraser Institute, a conservative think-tank, released its report cards for Ontario’s secondary schools Sunday. St. Ignatius High School ranked 76 out of 725 secondary schools in the province, scoring 7.9 out of 10 to top the local list.
That’s up from the 141 spot it had last year.
“We’re very proud,” education superintendent Pino Tassone said. “It’s very encouraging that both of our high schools improved.”
Tassone said the ranking though is just one of many tools the board uses to measure academic success. And it’s a way for the board to keep improving.
“We know that we always need to improve,” he said.
The city’s lowest score went to Westgate Collegiate and Vocational Institute, which ranked 578 provincially with a 4.7.
Lakehead Public Schools education superintendent Sherri-Lynne Pharand said the data can be used to improve student success, but the ranking itself isn’t an overall indicator.
“Lakehead Public Schools doesn’t believe in ranking schools in terms of using the data so we don’t put a lot of stake in the Fraser Institute results,” she said.
Provincial assessments like EQAO are important, but there are also non-quantifiable characteristics of a school that still matter.
“I think the most important story of a school really comes from the relationship between the teachers, the administration, the students, the parents and the community that really tells the story of how well a school is doing,” Pharand said.
Both boards say they have processes in place to identify areas where schools need improvement.
Hammarskjold came in a distant second for local high schools, scoring a 6.9 to take the 232nd spot in Ontario. Next up was St. Patrick High School sitting at number 331 with a 6.4. Sir Winston Churchill Collegiate and Vocational Institute scored a 5.6 to take number 466 while Superior Collegiate and Vocational Institute is number 522 with a 5.2.
