Fraser Institute releases Ontario elementary school rankings, spotlights schools that overcome special needs challenges

TORONTO—The Fraser Institute’s Report Card on Ontario’s Elementary Schools—now in its 15th year—is out today. This year’s Report Card—the go-to source for measuring academic performance—ranks more than 3,000 anglophone and francophone public and Catholic schools (and a small number of independent schools) based on nine academic indicators from results of annual province-wide reading, writing and math tests.

“The Report Card is a valuable tool for parents and educators, who can use it to find schools serving similar students elsewhere in the province that consistently perform better. By doing so, they can access success demonstrated by other similar schools so to improve their own school’s performance,” said Peter Cowley, director of School Performance Studies at the Fraser Institute. Province-wide test results and the report card help spotlight successful schools across the province that can serve as an example for others to follow. This year, for example, several schools achieved high ratings despite serving higher-than-average percentages of special needs students. The Grade 6 class at Ferris Glen Public School in Corbeil, just outside North Bay, has 61.5 per cent special needs students and yet it achieved an outstanding overall rating of 7.6 out of 10 in 2017. (The average rating for elementary schools in Ontario this year is 6.0 out of 10.) St. Ann in Thunder Bay has 57.1 per cent special needs students in grade six and achieved a rating of 7.2 out of 10. And, Ayton’s Normanby Community School in southwestern Ontario also scored 7.2 out of 10 even though special needs students comprise 50 per cent of the student body. “All too often, principals and teachers try to excuse a school’s poor overall performance by blaming the characteristics of the students or their families, but the results presented in the Report Card show that any school, no matter what challenges its students face, can succeed.” For the complete results on all ranked schools, and to easily compare the performance of different schools, visit compareschoolrankings.org. MEDIA CONTACT: Bryn Weese, Media Relations Specialist, Fraser Institute, bryn.weese@fraserinstitute.org