Neither director of education from Thunder Bay’s two school boards give the Fraser Institute’s annual Ontario elementary school report card much weight.
The independent research organization released its report Sunday on how well schools were doing across Ontario. The reported looked at 2,695 elementary schools across the province, but not every school made it into the report.
About 10 schools both from the Thunder Bay District Catholic School Board and the Lakehead Public School Board were absent.
The report didn’t include Armstrong Elementary, Crestview, Gorham and Ware, Hyde Park, Kingsway Park, Kakabeka Falls Elementary, St. James and Whitefish Valley.
The report also didn’t include Bishop Gallagher and Pope John Paul II.
But of those that did make the list, Holy Family Elementary School ranked the highest in Thunder Bay.
The Rosslyn Road school ranked 88th overall, scoring 8.9 out of 10.
Joan Powell, director of education for the TBDCSB, said she’s pleased where the schools have ranked but doesn’t like the idea of ranking.
“Our schools did really well in Thunder Bay,” Powell said.
“We’re seven out of 10 of the top schools and four out of the top five. We don’t like to rank our schools. I know our schools, I know our people and they are working their heads off to do their best. To have a ranking where someone is last and someone is second last is really hard on schools.”
She said they do an internal review of their schools to ensure they are meeting the required goals as well as to address any issues.
She added that the Fraser Institute’s report matched their critique of how well their schools were doing.
She also added that Bishop Gallagher and Pope John Paul II weren’t included because they didn’t participate in the required testing that the Fraser Institute bases its report on.
The lowest ranked school included in the report was Sherbrooke Public School at No. 2,642, just 53 spots from last place, with a score of 1.6.
Catherine Siemieniuk, director of education at Lakehead Public School Board, shared Powell’s opinions and said she didn’t put much weight on the rankings.
“Ten of our elementary schools weren’t on the report,” Siemieniuk said.
“When it comes to ranking schools that’s not a practice we believe really adds anything to student success. It does not create enhanced conditions for students. The ranking of our schools no way reflects the committed work that our teachers and staff do.”
Having the lowest ranked school in the city, Siemieniuk said she didn’t believe it would impact enrollment. She said she would put Sherbrooke against any other school.
Rankings were based on nine criteria, based on the annual province-wide tests administered in reading, writing and mathematics by Ontario's Education Quality and Accountability Office.
The report card also includes a variety of factors about each school's make-up, such as the percentage of English as a second language students and the percentage of special needs students.
The following is a list of how elementary schools in the Thunder Bay area performed, according to the Fraser Institute. The first number is the overall ranking, out of 2,695 schools. The number in parentheses is the score given each school:
• 88. Holy Family Elementary School (8.9)
• 119. St. Paul Elementary School (8.7)
• 281. St. Francis Elementary School (8.1)
• 392. Woodcrest Public School (7.8)
• 479. St. Elizabeth Elementary School (7.6)
• 479. Ecole Gron Morgan (7.6)
• 525. Holy Cross Elementary School (7.5)
• 606. St. Thomas Aquinas Elementary School (7.3)
• 710. Corpus Christi Elementary School (7.1)
• 710. Nor'Wester View Public School (7.1)
• 780. Edgewater Park Public School (7.0)
• 908. St. Margaret Elementary School (6.8)
• 970. Agnew H. Johnston Public School (6.7)
• 1,088. St. Vincent Elementary School (6.5)
• 1,223. St. Bernard Elementary School (6.3)
• 1,296. St. Pius X Elementary School (6.2)
• 1,296. Five Mile Public School (6.2)
• 1,296. Our Lady of Charity Public School (6.2)
• 1,423. Crestview Public School (6.0)
• 1,484. Westmount Public School (5.9)
• 1,538. Claude E. Garton Public School (5.8)
• 1,538. Vance Chapman Public School (5.8)
• 1,646. Ecole-Catholique Franco-Superior (5.6)
• 1,757. St. Martin Elementary School (5.4)
• 1,757. Valley Central Public School (5.4)
• 1,905. Whitefish Valley Public School (5.1)
• 2,034. Kakabeka Falls Public School (4.8)
• 2,068. C.D. Howe Public School (4.7)
• 2,196. St. Jude Elementary School (4.4)
• 2,196. Ogden Community School (4.4)
• 2,269. St. Ann Elementary School (4.2)
• 2,551. Algonquin Avenue Public School (2.8)
• 2,551. McKellar Park Central Public School (2.8)
• 2,642. Sherbrooke Public School (1.6)
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