(Updated 10 a.m., March 2)
Colonel By remains among top high schools in Ontario
By Fred Sherwin
Orléans Online

For the fifth year in a row, Colonel By Secondary School has finished near the head of the class in a list of the top high schools in Ontario.

The Fraser Institute released its Report Card on Ontario’s Secondary Schools on Sunday and Colonel By was ranked fourth among the 676 schools included on the list.

The Report Card looks at the school’s province-wide EQAO test results for math and literacy and then weighs them based on a number of socio-economic factors including gender, percentage of ESL students and average family income.

At Colonel By, a full 96.9 per cent of the students who took the Ontario Secondary School Literary Test passed on the first attempt and 93.3 per cent scored at or above the provincial standard on the EQAO math test.

By comparison, 69.9 per cent of the students at Gloucester High School passed the literacy test on their fist attempt and only 67.9 per cent of the students scored at or above the provincial standard on the EQAO math test.

Colonel By has been at or near the head of the class in Ontario for the past five years. The school was ranked 3rd in 2014, 5th in 2013, 3rd in 2012 and 6th in 2011.

The east end is also home to one of the most improved high schools in Ontario, with École secondaire catholique Béatrice-Desloges moving up 414 spots from 522 in 2012 to 108 last year, ranking it third among the 10 east end high schools listed in the report.

The second highest ranked school is École secondaire cath-olique Garneau which placed 42nd on the province-wide list, giving the Conseil des écoles catholiques Centre-Est two high schools in the top 50.

Three other east end high schools moved up in the prov-ince-wide rankings. St. Peter High School climbed 58 spots from 178 in 2012 to 120 last year, making it the second highest ranked English language high school in the east end and highest ranked English Catholic high school.

St. Matthew High School moved up to 145th place last year from 214 in 2012, and Cairine Wilson Secondary School improved to 222 from 313.

Unfortunately, the remainder of the high schools in the east end are trending in the opposite direction. École secondaire publique Gisèle-Lalonde dropped from 47 in 2012 to 222 in 2015; Gloucester High School dipped from 396 to 427; and Lester B. Pearson High School plunged from 442 in 2012 to 565 last year, making it the lowest ranked school in the east end.

(This story was made possible thanks to the generous support of our local business partners.)

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