The Fraser Institute has released its annual ranking of elementary schools in Ontario, using Grade 3 and Grade 6 EQAO results. This year, two schools from Kingston have landed among the lowest in the province.
Rideau Heights received a score of 0, while John Grave Simcoe scored only 0.3, placing them both in the bottom 15 schools across Ontario.
The Fraser Institute’s Report Card evaluates 3052 elementary schools statewide. The organization states that it gathers various “relevant, objective indicators of school performance” and organizes this information into one accessible document to help parents understand how their child’s school stacks up against others in the province.
“Our Report Cards offer parents information they can’t easily get anywhere else, about how their child’s school performs and how it compares to other schools in Ontario,” said Paige Mac Pherson, a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute, in a news release.
“It doesn’t matter where a school is ranked or what challenges its students may face. The evidence is clear-all types of schools, located all over the province with different types of students, are all capable of improvement,”
Limestone District School Board Director of Education Krishna Burra counters that EQAO data is publicly available each year.
Burra mentioned that the data used for this report is now over a year old; parents recently received newer results just last month. He believes that without context, these figures provide an incomplete picture.
Ultimately, not much weight should be given to these rankings-whether they are good or bad.
“The Limestone District School Board remains focused on the provincial Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) assessment data and other data in the Provincial Student Achievement Plan. EQAO results are publicly available each year and shared annually with Limestone families; results for 2024-2025 were communicated just last month,” Burra stated.
“Limestone continues to utilize EQAO data along with other Provincial Student Achievement Plan information and a variety of additional data based on student census responses, school climate surveys, and ongoing assessments to enhance learning, support students, and improve outcomes across all district schools. The most recent EQAO data show continued progress for Limestone students with most results being at or above provincial averages.”
It’s crucial to remember that Fraser Institute rankings only reflect part of the EQAO data based on 2023-2024 results. The board does not consider these rankings useful or helpful for improving student learning and achievement since they rely on limited data without context.”
The publicly available data shows that even those schools ranked among the lowest have seen some improvement across nearly all categories measured since the 2023/24 figures used by the Fraser Institute Report Cards.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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