Fraser Institute Report Card on Ontario’s Secondary Schools returns to the web

Contacts:

Peter Cowley, Director of School Performance Studies
The Fraser Institute
Telephone: (604) 714-4556
Email: peterc@fraserinstitute.ca

Release Date: 26 April 2001

TORONTO, ON —The Report Card on Ontario’s Secondary Schools: 2001 Edition is once again available on the Fraser Institute’s web site.

The Report Card is based on data provided by the Ontario Ministry of Education. Ten of the 815 schools included raised concerns that there were inconsistencies between the figures they had submitted to the Ministry of Education and the data subsequently provided to the Fraser Institute. The Ministry of Education is currently reviewing the data for these schools.

The schools currently under review are:

Bishop Strachan School, Toronto
Columbia International College of Canada, Hamilton
Lambton Christian High School, Sarnia
MacLachlan College, Oakville
Mentor College, Mississauga
Ridley College, St. Catharines
Rockway Mennonite Collegiate, Kitchener
St. Peter's Secondary School, Peterborough
St. Thomas of Villanova Secondary School, La Salle
Toronto French School, Toronto

"The integrity of our research is of paramount importance," says Peter Cowley, director of school performance studies at the Fraser Institute, "we made the decision to temporarily remove the Report Card from our web site until we could establish a process with the Ministry of Education to verify the data of the schools in question."

Verification of the data is currently underway by the Ministry and if that process reveals errors in the data provided by the Ministry of Education to the Institute, the rankings will be recalculated and republished. Given the small number of schools affected, this would not be expected to make a material difference in the rankings.

The Fraser Institute has published annual Report Cards on secondary schools in British Columbia since 1998, and in Alberta since 1999. The first Report Card on Quebec’s Secondary Schools, produced in association with the Montreal Economic Institute, was published in 2000. The Ontario Report Card is the only instance where Ministry of Education data has been called into question.

NOTE: Eight additional schools have been added since April 26. They are:

Ashbury College, Ottawa
De la Salle College, Toronto
Lakeport Secondary School, St. Catharines
Rosseau Lake College, Rosseau
St. John's Kilmarnock, Breslau
St. Michael Catholic Secondary School, Stratford
Trafalgar Castle, Whitby
Trinity College School, Port Hope

Established in 1974, The Fraser Institute is an independent public policy organization based in Vancouver, with offices in Calgary and Toronto.

For further information contact:
Suzanne Walters, Director of Communications,
The Fraser Institute
(604) 714-4582
Email: suzannew@fraserinstitute.ca