Report Card on Ontario's Secondary Schools : 2001 Edition

1 Percentage of advanced courses taken

This indicator counts the advanced-level¹³ grade 11, 12, and OAC courses (expressed as a percentage of total) in which the students at the school enrolled. It is derived by dividing the total enrollment (in course credit equivalents¹⁴) in these courses by the total enrollment in all grade 11, 12, and OAC courses (in course credit equivalents) at the school.

An often-cited characteristic of effective schools¹⁵ is that teachers, principals, and parents share high expectations of their students. High expectations are reflected in the choice of courses made by the school's students. Advanced level courses in a wide variety of subject areas are available at most schools and effective schools will ensure that their students avail themselves of challenging courses in several subject areas.

The students' willingness to select advanced level courses will also likely reflect their previous experience at the school. Success in the earlier grades will encourage students to enroll in challenging courses as they progress into the senior grades. Effective teaching will contribute to the success students enjoy. Further, where teachers have made courses relevant and interesting, students will feel more able to take on the added challenge of advanced-level courses.

2 Percentage of courses passed

For each school, this indicator provides the rate of successful completion (as a percentage) of all the grade 11, 12, and OAC courses enrolled in by the students. It was derived by dividing the sum, for each school, of all grade 11, 12, and OAC courses that were successfully completed by the sum of all such courses enrolled in at the beginning of the school year.

In part, effective teaching can be measured by the ability of the students to complete courses successfully. Schools have the responsibility to prepare their students to do so. The final grade awarded each student in a course will take into account a variety of assessments of the student's progress made by the teacher throughout the year.

Since this indicator compares successful completion with initial enrollment, it takes account of those students who do not complete the course as well as of those who complete the course but do not pass. Thus, a high score on this indicator also suggests that the school's students effectively plan and execute their annual course schedules.

3 Core courses taken per student

In their senior years, students have freedom to choose from a considerable variety of courses. Their choices will have an impact on their literacy, numeracy, and analytical skills at graduation. Their choices will also affect the variety of post-secondary options open to them.

This indicator measures the average number of grade 12 and OAC courses selected from the Language Arts, Mathematics, and basic sciences subject areas by the students at a school. It is derived by dividing the total enrollment (in course credit equivalents) in courses from these subject areas by the total number of students registered in grade 12 at the school.

Course offerings in each of these subject areas include alternatives that reflect what different groups of students wish to do after graduation. So, far from being courses only for a university-bound elite, these courses teach skills and knowledge that will benefit students no matter what they plan to do after graduation. Most students should take advantage of these courses and a school that is successful in encouraging students to take these courses shows that it offers practical, well-informed counselling.

4 Gender gap: Language arts mark difference

5 Gender gap: Mathematics mark difference

These two indicators report the difference in the average course mark between the sexes in each of two popular advanced-level grade 12 courses.¹⁶ The Language arts mark difference is derived by subtracting the average mark for male students from the corresponding average mark for female students. The Mathematics mark difference is calculated in the same way.

In a recent study of gender differences in the academic results of British Columbia students, the authors found that "there appears to be no compelling evidence that girls and boys should, given effective teaching and counselling, experience differential rates of success."¹⁷ However, the study revealed that in British Columbia,

[g]irls receive higher grades on school-based assessments in all subjects regardless of their relative performance on the provincial examinations. The general rule seems to be that if an assessment or award is made at the school level, girls achieve better results than boys do.¹⁸

Since no curriculum-based grade 12 uniform provincial examinations are administered in Ontario, we cannot compare gender differences in examination marks and school-based assessments. However, the Ministry data upon which this study is based provides evidence that there are similar systematic differences in the average school marks of these groups. For example, the 1998/1999 results for all the schools show that, on average, female students score about 4.5 percentage points higher in the Language Arts course than male students do, while in the Mathematics course--commonly thought to be a course in which male students excel--female students score about 1.3 percentage points higher.

When all six years of data are considered, the results favoured female students more than 90% of the time in Language Arts courses and about 60% of the time in Mathematics.

The Gender Gap indicators may be affected by at least two factors. A high gender gap will result if either sex is, on average, more successful in acquiring the skills and knowledge embodied in the curriculum. However, higher values may also result if the school-based assessment is biased in favour of one sex or includes factors in the assessment other than understanding of the curriculum.

In either case, schools experiencing high gender gaps should investigate classroom practice to determine why one sex receives better grades than the other.

In general, how is the school doing academically?

Overall rating out of 10

While each of the indicators is important, it is almost always the case that any school does better on some indicators than on others. So, just as a teacher must make a decision about a student's overall performance, we need an overall indicator of school performance (in the tables Overall rating out of 10). Just as teachers combine test scores, homework, and class participation to rate a student, we have combined all the indicators to produce an overall school rating.

To derive this rating, the results for each of the indicators, for each of the six years, were first standardized. Standardization is a statistical procedure whereby sets of raw data with different characteristics are converted into sets of values with "standard" statistical properties. Standardized values can be combined and compared.

The five standardized scores were then weighted¹⁹ and combined to produce an overall standardized score. Finally, this score was converted into an overall rating out of 10. It is from this Overall rating out of 10 that the school's provincial rank is determined. For schools teaching only male or only female students, there are, of course, no results for the Gender gap indicators. In these cases the Overall rating is derived using the remaining three indicators. (Explanatory notes on the weightings and calculation of the Overall rating out of 10 are contained in Appendix 1.)

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