Most of Orillia’s secondary and elementary schools are performing below provincial averages, with one school – Regent Park Public School – ranking close to the bottom in the Fraser Institute’s 2024 report cards.
Ranking schools across Ontario, the institute’s secondary school report card was released earlier this month, following its elementary school report card published earlier in 2024.
The report cards ranked 746 secondary schools and 3,021 elementary schools across the province for the 2022/2023 academic year, based on results obtained through provincewide test results.
Schools are ranked out of ten based on these indicators, and only two of Orillia’s 13 schools ranked higher than the provincial average score of six.
Among elementary schools, Marchmont Public School came out on top locally, achieving a 6.8 score and ranking 1,026th province-wide, with Notre Dame Catholic School trailing close behind with a 6.1 score and placing 1,525th.
On the other end of the rankings, Regent Park Public School scored a dismal 1.3 for 2,985th place in the province, plummeting from its score of 4.8 in 2022.
Uptergrove Public School did not fare much better, ranking 2,726th provincially with a score of 3.5, falling a full two points from its 2022 ranking of 5.5.
Here’s how the rest of Orillia’s elementary schools fared in the report card:
- Couchiching Heights Public School: 5.8 score, ranked 1,729
- Harriett Todd Public School: 5.5 score, ranked 1,934
- St. Bernard’s Catholic School: 5.5 score, tied for 1,934
- Monsignor Lee Catholic School: 5.0 score, ranked 2,196
- Orchard Park Public School: 5.0 score, tied for 2,196
- Lions Oval Public School: 4.1 score, ranked 2,535
Beyond elementary schools, each of Orillia’s three secondary schools similarly ranked below provincial averages.
Orillia Secondary School came out on top locally, scoring 5.7 and ranking 437th provincially – a drop from its above average scores between 6.3–6.8 from 2017–2019.
Twin Lakes Secondary School scored 5.1 for 541st provincially, and has ranked below the provincial average dating back to 2017.
Patrick Fogarty Catholic Secondary School placed last locally, scoring 4.9 and ranking 555th provincially, with the school steadily dropping year-over-year from its 6.4 score in 2017.
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 notes 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/.
-- With files from Luke Mandato
