J.W. Walker School here has topped the list of elementary schools in Ontario, according to the Fraser Institute’s annual Report Card on Ontario’s Elementary Schools.
J.W. Walker earned a perfect 10 out of 10 score, along with 30 other schools in the province, most of which are located in urban centres. Across the province, 2,887 schools were included in the study.
“We’re very proud of J.W. Walker, as we are of all our schools,” said Warren Hoshizaki, the director of education for the Rainy River District School Board.
“The [board] has made significant improvements in the entire system with respect to EQAO scores over the last four years.
“But there’s little value in ranking schools,” he added.
The report card is based on students’ performance on the test the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) administers each year to students in Grades 3 and 6 in reading, writing, and math.
Hoshizaki said a ranking of schools that looks only at test performance has little value.
“There’s a problem with ranking schools without acknowledging other conditions,” such as cultural differences and socio-economic status, he noted.
While the report card does identify the average education of students’ parents at each school, those numbers are not factored into the ranking.
“We use these results to focus on professional development for teachers,” Hoshizaki said. “Our system and school planning uses these scores to inform learning and improve the success of all students.”
J.W. Walker was the only school to rank 10 out of 10 in Northwestern Ontario. The next closest school was Nor’wester View Public School in Thunder Bay, which ranked 227 out of the 2,887 with an 8.4 out of 10.
The only other Fort Frances school in the study was Robert Moore, which ranked at 1,130 with a score of 6.5. Donald Young School in Emo ranked 446th with a score of 7.8, while Sturgeon Creek in Barwick ranked 1,200 with a score of 6.4.
Crossroads School in Devlin ranked 2,037th with a score of 5.0.
For the local separate board, St. Joseph’s School in Dryden ranked 1,405th with a score of 6.1 while Sacred Heart School in Sioux Lookout ranked 1,462nd with a score of 6.0.
Because the report card relies on results in both Grades 3 and 6 EQAO testing, schools that do not offer both grades are not included in the study. Also excluded are schools with fewer than 15 students enrolled in each of these grades.
“The exclusion of a school from the report card should not be considered a judgment of the school’s effectiveness,” the report card reads.
The students’ average level of achievement in each subject is taken into account, as well as any gender differences in results and the percentage of tests that did not meet provincial standard.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
