The Lucknow Sentinel, 2016-12-14, Page 14Wednesday, December 14, 2016 • Lucknow Sentinel 15
Local elementary schools on Fraser rankings
Rob Gowan
Owen Sound Sun Times
Derby Public School, which
closed in June, was the sec-
ond-highest ranked Bluewa-
ter school in the Fraser Insti-
tute's recent rankings of
elementary schools.
Derby ranked 519 out of
2,900 schools provincewide
in the Report Card on Ontar-
io's Elementary Schools
2016, which was derived
from results of annual prov-
incewide reading, writing
and math scores.
Derby Public closed in June
as a result of an accommoda-
tion review of the Owen
Sound area, that also resulted
in the closing of OSCVI as a
high school. The Bluewater
board cited declining enrol-
ment in the area, which left
Derby with unused pupil
places, and left room in neigh-
bouring schools to take the
Derby students once the
school closed. The school was
also deemed prohibitive to
repair by the province.
Derby, which had a score
of 7.5 out of 10 in the rank-
ings, was behind only North-
port Central School in Port
Elgin among Bluewater Dis-
trict School Board schools in
the rankings. Northport
ranked in 406th place with a
score of 7.7. Not all Grey -
Bruce schools were ranked.
Peter Cowley, director of
School Performance Studies
at the Fraser Institute, said it
is unfortunate a school that
did so well had closed, but
added "it is not the building
that counts. It is what goes
on inside it."
"I am sure the board will
say, 'Now how do we reassign
what maybe a magic team of
people to ensure that the 7,
and the 7.7 and the 7.5 that
Derby has got over the past
few years is not wasted;" said
Cowley. "Where is the princi-
pal going and where is that
staff going?"
Wendy Kolohon, superin-
tendent of education with
the Bluewater board, said
the board doesn't believe in
ranking its schools, but
added they have wonderful
students and wonderful staff
across the entire board.
"No matter which building
you are in, the great work is
happening with every build-
ing and we are supporting
every building," said Kolohon.
The top-ranked Bruce -
Grey Catholic District School
Board school in the Fraser
rankings was Sacred Heart
School in Mildmay at No. 41
with a score of 9.2. Immacu-
late Conception School in
Formosa was 157th with an
8.3 ranking and Mother
Teresa School in Walkerton
was 230th with an 8.1
ranking.
"Sacred Heart at 9.2 is a
big jump for them because
they were in the middle 7's
before," said Cowley.
Three other Grey -Bruce
schools cracked the top
1,000 in the rankings. The
Bluewater board's Beaver
Valley Elementary School
was ranked 574th with a 7.4
score, while Arran Tara Ele-
mentary School and Bruce
Peninsula District School
tied for 784th on the list with
rankings of 7.1.
The average for the 43
schools ranked in Grey -
Bruce was 5.3, while the
average for all the schools in
the report is 6.0.
"It is below average, but it is
not disastrously below average"
said Cowley. "Out of the total
number of schools, 16 of them
were at average or above, so
there is lots of opportunity for
them to improve"
The Fraser Institute ranks
the schools on nine academic
indicators from results of the
annual province -wide Grade
3 and 6 EQAO tests.
The institute, which calls
itself a public policy research
and educational organization,
says the report card allows
parents to analyze and com-
pare the performance of
schools, which can assist
them when choosing a school
for their children.
It also facilitates school
improvement by providing
motivation to the school
boards, as it provides indictors
that schools could use to work
towards improving perfor-
mance, it says in the report.
"School administrators who
are dedicated to their students'
academic success accept the
Report Card as another source
of opportunities for improve-
ment;' the report states.
Kolohon said the board
monitors its EQAO results,
but added they put those
results into perspective as
there is more to evaluating a
school's effectiveness.
"Many boards, as well as
EQAO, feel the scores provide
an incomplete picture of a
school's effectiveness;' Kolohon
said. "By ranking schools, itis a
little misleading, because you
have to look at all the important
factors, like evaluating school
effectiveness when it comes to
school programs, demograph-
ics, special education needs,
teaching practices, learning cul-
ture and any other data we col-
lect at the school level"
Kolohon said the EQAO
results need to be
"unpacked" and put into
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context and are not a way to
rank schools.
"We never look at the abso-
lutes because there are so many
different indicators of student
need and extra help to
improve ' said Kolohon. "When
we look at data itis always in the
context ofhowitis going to sup-
port student learning and
school improvement"
Mike Bethune, a superin-
tendent of education with
the Bruce -Grey Catholic
School Board, said they also
don't believe in ranking
schools.
"There is a lot more to a
school than the Fraser Insti-
tute has access to and all
schools are separate entities
to themselves," said Bethune.
"We think the ranking dis-
tracts from what really makes
things great at schools, such as
culture of the school, commu-
nity involvement, etcetera.
There is a lot that goes into
making up a great school"
Bethune, who declined to
comment on how specific
BGCDSB schools did in the
Fraser rankings, said the
annual EQAO results, along
with school-based data, gives
them the information they
need as to where they focus
their energy and resources.
"We use this data to drive
instruction and provide our stu-
dents with what they need to be
successful in an ever-changing
world," said Bethune. "We do
monitor the EQAO results
closely, but it is just one piece of
data that we follow. School-
based data is also as important,
maybe even in some cases
more important."
Cowley said normally the
report card for the 2014-15
school year wouldn't be
released until late February or
early March, but because of
job action by public school
teachers that school year,
there is no report card for that
year. He added that the EQAO
results from the 2015-16
school year came out earlier
than normal so they were able
to have the report card for that
year finished now.
The number of schools in
the report is down this year as
it doesn't include Toronto
Catholic District School Board
schools because of job action
by teachers there last year.
The rankings can be found
at www.compareschool-
rankings.org
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