The Fraser Institute has released its annual report card on Quebec’s high schools and, with few exceptions, English public schools in the Montreal area didn’t fare well.
The conservative think tank uses provincial exams in French, English, mathematics and science as the main factors in determining the annual rankings. The overwhelming majority of anglophone public schools fell below the average score of 6.0.
Private schools continue to dominate the rankings but two French public schools — Ecole d’éducation internationale in McMasterville and Ecole internationale de Montréal — were among the six schools that topped the rankings with perfect scores of 10.0.
The only English public schools in the top 50 are Royal West Academy, which requires an entrance exam and interview before admission, and ranks 30th with a score of 8.7, and Vincent Massey, which ranks 49th.
St. Thomas is the top English public school on the West Island, with a score of 7.9. John Rennie, Pierrefonds, Westmount, Beaconsfield, Rosemere and Centennial on the South Shore all rank above 6.0, as do alternative schools M.I.N.D and FACE.
The list of public schools below the provincial average includes LaSalle, Riverdale, MacDonald, Rosemount, Laurier MacDonald, John F. Kennedy, Lester B. Pearson and Lindsay Place. James Lyng in southwest Montreal has the lowest rating in the province at 0.0.
The highest-rated English private school is The Study, which ranks 23rd with a score of 9.2. Other English private schools in the top 50 are Sacred Heart, Miss Edgar’s and Miss Cramp’s and St. George’s (tied for 40th) and Loyola at 49th.
“Our report card offers parents information they can’t easily get anywhere else about their child’s school and how it compares to other schools across Quebec,” said Yanick Labrie, a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute and co-author of the report.
Forty-four schools — including public and independent schools from Sherbrooke to Saguenay —showed statistically significant improvement while 45 schools experienced declining performance.
The province’s fastest-improving school — Citoyen in Montréal — improved its rating from 4.6 in 2015 to 6.0 in 2019. The province’s second-best improvement was at Sainte-Marie in Princeville from 3.6 in 2015 to 5.7 last year, despite more than 30 per cent of the school’s students having special needs.
“Our school rankings prove that improvement is possible in every corner of the province, in every type of school serving every type of student,” Labrie said. “Parents should use these rankings every year to assess their child’s school, and when necessary, to ask the principal how he or she plans to turn things around.”
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2020
