The Fraser Institute has released its 2024 report card for Ontario secondary schools, with schools in Thornhill, Markham, Mississauga and Toronto taking top spots.
It was a five-way tie for first place in the 2024 rankings, with Al Manarat Heights Islamic in Mississauga, St. Michael's Choir and York Mills in Toronto, St. Robert Catholic High School in Thornhill and St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic High School in Richmond Hill all scoring a perfect 10 out of 10.
Markham and Richmond Hill appeared again just outside of the the top ranking schools, with St. Augustine Catholic High School and Bayview Secondary School scoring a 9.6 and a 9.4 respectively.
Newmarket High School secured the top score in town with an 8.5 out of 10.
The majority of secondary schools in Newmarket ranked slightly above average, with Dr. John M. Denison Secondary School scoring a 6.6, Sacred Heart Catholic High School scoring 6.8 and Sir William Mulock Secondary School scoring 6.7. Huron Heights Secondary School rounded out the list by scoring six out of 10, up slightly from last year’s report card.
In Aurora, Dr. G.W. Williams Secondary School placed in the top 30 of all schools in the report, scoring a 8.8. Both Aurora High School and École secondaire catholique Renaissance also placed within the 8 to 8.9 score bracket, followed by Cardinal Carter Catholic High School at 7.5 and St. Maximilian Kolbe Catholic High School at 6.9.
The report card, which ranked 746 secondary schools across the province, uses indicators obtained through provincewide test results. These indicators include the average level of achievement on the Grade 9 EQAO assessment in mathematics and the percentage of Ontario Secondary School Literacy Tests (OSSLT) successfully completed by first-time eligible students among others.
The overall rating out of 10 is intended to answer the question, “In general, how is the school doing, academically compared with others in the report card?”
The institute assigns each school a score based on their overall academic performance.
Fraser Institute also notes that the report card includes other indicators that provide supplementary information about the school’s effectiveness despite not accounting for each school’s overall rating out of 10. These include students in English as a second language, English language learner programs or who have certain identified special needs, as well as indicators for students who have not written their EQAO tests.
A note to individuals using the recent report card as a measuring stick to each school’s success, the institute also states that readers should consult the complete table of results for each school of interest by considering several years of results as opposed to a school's most recent rank.
The full report for 2024 can be found online at https://www.compareschoolrankings.org/.
