They may be in hot water over gay-straight alliances, but Ontario Catholic schools outshine public schools in straight-up achievement, suggests a
report from the
C.D. Howe Institute.
Of the top 29 schools in Ontario — based on a fancy formula that screens out family factors that give some schools an edge — 17, or nearly two-thirds, are Catholic even though the public system is twice as large.
Across the GTA, nine of the 20 top-scoring schools are Catholic, according to
Ontario’s Best Public Schools, produced by the think tank every three years. The report takes three years of Grade 3 and 6 test scores from Ontario’s 4,000 public and Catholic schools and adjusts for demographic advantages such as a high number of educated parents, or students who have lived in Canada for more than three years or speak English or French at home, or even a high proportion of girls (girls tend to do better at tests).
“Maybe they’re more selective, or maybe Catholic schools just try harder because they know parents can always switch their kids to the public system,” mused economics professor
David Johnson.
Education professor Ben Levin, of the University of Toronto, warned against ranking school systems by test scores that may differ only slightly — “a 2 per cent gap can reflect just one student, depending on the size of a school” — but noted that Catholic schools may be more selective about which students they keep.
In the United States, Catholic schools tend to score better, but they’re private schools that, because of the fees, draw richer, more educated families.
The magic factor may be that a special focus of any kind, including religion, makes a school more engaging, education professor Michael Fullan has suggested in the past; “a sense of shared community values” may help children focus on learning.
The new study also shows that Grade 6 students who attend middle schools are 5 per cent less likely to pass province-wide tests than their peers at K-8 schools.
“It may be that adding one more transition — a move to a middle school — could make it harder,” suggested Johnson, a professor at
Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo.
St. Teresa Catholic School in Etobicoke is ranked in the top five Toronto Catholic schools for beating its socio-economic odds. Based on the background of its students, its pass rate on test scores should have been nearly 5 points below the Ontario average, yet it was 22 points higher.
“We don’t have a magic bullet, but it comes down to good teaching and lots of programs to help students who have trouble writing,” said former principal John Neralich.
Even one problem can derail a school’s test scores. Etobicoke’s
St. Luigi Catholic School scored well in Grade 3 but low in Grade 6, largely because of weak Grade 6 math scores. In particular, “it was the multiple-choice questions that killed us,” explained Principal Tony Casole. The largely Portuguese-speaking students struggled with the nuanced language of these problems, so teachers have focused on boosting those skills.
Highland Heights Junior Public School in Scarborough also scored poorly, yet its test scores on are on the rise, and a school survey shows children feel happy, safe and welcome, noted principal David Williams.
The school is opening a
girls’ leadership academy this fall for Grades 4 to 6 that will promote confidence and present female role models.
“Parents always ask about test scores, but I tell them to come see the school,” said Williams. “Test scores aren’t the whole story.”
I don’t normally notice typos/spelling errors in patch notes. 
