school desk

The Fraser institute is releasing it’s annual rankings showing Timmins schools are barely making the grade.

The report grades 676 schools in the province and ranks them accordingly but DSBONE Chair, Doug Shearer says we should take these results with a grain of salt.

‘In the long run the rankings aren’t what’s really important to us. What is important is the progress our students make. Even the minister has noted the rankings aren’t an effective way of addressing the results through EQAO.”

Ecole Secondaire Catholique Theriault is the highest ranked school in Timmins at 289th,  while Renaissance is at 626. Shearer says this ranking has everything to do with population and enrollment.

“There’s a significant difference in the sample size i our schools. We have a school with 14 students in the applied mathematics course and three couldn’t take the provincial test.  That was 21% of the sample that couldn’t take the test.  21% for three students shows you how these statistics can be skewed.”

Shearer says they’ look at the results and are always trying to improve upon them.  He says they’ve seen improvement in the academic stream of a slower progression in the applied stream.

“We’ve focused in on that with additional math tutoring and literacy tutoring.”