Elementary schools from the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) are at the top of the heap when it comes to academic performance in Ontario.
Sixteen of the 22 schools to receive a perfect 10-out-of-10 rating in the Fraser Institute’s 2024 Ontario report card are located in the GTA.
The think tank published its grades for elementary schools across the province this week, ranking the 3,021 public, Catholic and independent schools from best to worst.
Rankings are based on nine academic indicators derived from provincewide test results on reading, writing, and mathematics skills.
The province’s Grade 3 and Grade 6 Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) results provide systematic insight into a school’s performance, the report said, noting that it allows the institute to assess each school’s yearly performance as well as its improvement or deterioration over time.
“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,” Fraser Institute senior fellow Peter Cowley said in an Aug. 29 press release.
Only 386 schools scored 8.0 or higher out of 10 while 576 schools scored between 7.0 and 7.9 and 701 schools received scores ranging from 6.9 to 6.0.
A total of 569 schools ranked between 5.9 and 5.0, 368 schools received a score of 4.9 to 4.0 and 242 schools ranged from 3.9 to 3.0 out of 10. Seventy-two schools received a rating below 2.0.
Seven schools received a score of zero. The schools are located in Toronto, Kenora, Ottawa, Kingston, Moose Factory, Mountain Grove, and Hagersville.
Publicly rating schools is not just about keeping parents informed but about providing motivation to the schools themselves, the report said. Schools that perform well or show consistent improvement are applauded while poorly performing schools generate concern.
“This inevitable attention provides an incentive for all those connected with a school to focus on student results,” the authors wrote.
It is a common misconception that struggling institutions are unable to improve their standing, Cowely said, but he emphasized that all schools are capable of achieving better results, regardless of their type, location, or the demographics of their students.
“It doesn’t matter where a school is ranked or what challenges its students may face,” Cowley said. “The evidence is clear—all types of schools, located all over the province with different types of students, are all capable of improvement.”
Two examples of that are St. Paul Elementary School in Thunder Bay and Stirling Public School, located 20 minutes north of Belleville.
St. Paul is one of the fastest improving elementary schools in the province, rising from a score of 4.1 out of 10 in 2017 to 9.6 in 2023.
The public school in Stirling has also risen swiftly in the ranks from 3.9 in 2017 to 8.6 in 2023, even with 23.2 percent of its students identified as having special needs.
Schools receiving a perfect rating of 10 are:
- Avondale Elementary Alternative School in Toronto,
- St. Justin Martyr Catholic School in Unionville,
- Northmount School in Toronto,
- Khalsa School Malton in Mississauga,
- St. Michael’s Choir School in Toronto,
- Bayview Fairways Public School in Thornhill,
- St. Sebastian Catholic School in Toronto,
- Forest Trail Public School in Oakville,
- Rosedale Junior Public School in Toronto,
- St. Edmund Catholic School in Mississauga,
- St Vincent de Paul in Niagara Falls,
- New Dundee Public School in New Dundee,
- Nelles Public School in Grimsby,
- Orchard Park Public School in London,
- John Marshall Public School in Niagara Falls,
- Al-Manarat Heights Islamic School in Mississauga,
- Al Ameen Elementary School in Brampton,
- Alfajrul Bassem Academy in Oakville,
- Cottingham Junior Public School in Toronto,
- Islamic School of Cambridge in Cambridge,
- Khalsa Community School in Brampton,
- Sathya Sai School in Toronto.
