Ontario's high schools gets ranked by The Fraser Institute

Students solve math problems at a California high school in this January 2013 file photo. (AP / Jae C. Hong)

As students may be enjoying their last day of March Break, secondary schools are getting graded by Canada’s think tank.

The Fraser Institute released its annual report card on Ontario’s 725 public, private and Catholic secondary schools.  Ranking the schools based on seven academic indicators using data from standardized literacy and math tests overseen by Ontario’s Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO).

With a rating of 9.6 out of 10, the highest-rated school is London Central Secondary School in London, followed by Toronto’s Cardinal Carter School for the Arts (9.5).

Peter Cowley, one of the report’s authors, said he hopes schools that were ranked poorly will use that as inspiration to improve their scores, and he hopes they will look for guidance from schools that ranked higher on the list.

Cowley said the purpose of the report card is to inform parents and allow them to compare schools in their region, although some educators are not fans of the method used to rank the schools.

Of the top 20 most improved schools over the last five years, 10 are public schools where the parental income is below average, and four have a special needs student population that accounts for 20 per cent of total school enrolment.

In Kitchener, the top schools are Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute and Resurrection Catholic Secondary School, ranking number 200 and 32 on the list.

In Waterloo, Bluevale Collegiate Institute ranked 94 overall.

Both the Waterloo Region District School Board and The Waterloo Catholic District School Board have criticized the Fraser Institute’s annual ranking, saying the EQAO results aren’t meant to be used to rank schools and the report doesn’t take into account other important factors.