Bellewood Tops Local School Rankings

Bellewood French immersion school has retained its ranking as the top local performer in the annual Fraser Institute report card on Ontario's elementary schools.

Bellewood scored a 9.6 out of 10 in the rankings, which the public policy think-tank releases every year to provide a tool for parents to compare the academic performance of schools across their districts and the province. The South Windsor school's score for academic year 2008-09 was unchanged from the previous year.

St. Rose Catholic school was in second place with a ranking of 8.9. It was followed by French language school board's Ecole elementaire Catholique St. Therese at 8.7, a jump of two points over its average in the previous five years.

Scoring lower were St. John Catholic school in Windsor at 2.8, Dr. H.D. Taylor public school at 2.7 and Gordon McGregor public school at 2.2

"These detailed results provide parents with the information they need to ask the principal at their children's school important questions about the school's performance," said Peter Cowley, Fraser Institute director of school performance studies. "In the spirit of encouraging academic excellence the report card also offers educators the ability to compare the academic performance of their school to others with similar characteristics, helping them identify areas in which improvement can be made."

The report rates 2,742 English-and French-language public and Catholic elementary schools across Ontario, including 105 in Windsor and Essex County, based on nine key indicators derived from provincewide tests of reading, writing and numeracy carried out by then Province's Education Quality and Accountability Office. The report also provides references for individual school performances over the most recent five years to allow parents to assess whether the school has been improving.

But Cathy Geml, superintendent of education for the Windsor Essex Catholic District School Board, said that while providing a useful snapshot of performance, the Fraser rankings lack the "contextual" data that the boards receive from the published EQAO reports each year. She said the official ministry reports provide comprehensive analysis of each school, taking into account enrolment, demographic profile, tracking of students and trends over a five-year period.

"It won't change or effect what we do," Geml said of the Fraser report. "We gather more information and get a more contextual look at the schools. A lot needs to be considered, not just black and white numbers."

Clara Howitt, superintendent of education for the Greater Essex County District School Board, said the Fraser study results must be taken into account with other sources of information to get a more complete picture of overall school performance.

Article Credit:
DON LAJOIE
The Windsor Star