More than half of Chatham-Kent’s public and Catholic elementary schools saw a decline in student academic performance following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Fraser Institute, a Canadian public policy think tank and registered charity, released its Report Card on Ontario’s Elementary Schools on Tuesday.
The report card ranks the academic performance of 2,975 public, Catholic, and independent elementary schools in Ontario for the 2021-22 school year. It marks the first time the annual rankings have been released since 2019.
The rankings out of 10 are based on nine academic indicators that are derived from the results of province-wide EQAO student testing for students in Grades 3 and 6 in reading, writing and math.
According to the report, 15 of Chatham-Kent’s 26 schools in the Lambton-Kent District and St. Clair Catholic District school boards saw a decline in performance between 2019 and 2022. Two of the schools’ rankings remained unchanged, while a third opened in 2020 and did not have past results for comparison.
Wheatley Area Public School was the most-improved elementary school in Chatham-Kent, rising from a score of 6.8 out of 10 in 2019 to 7.9 in 2022.
St. Elizabeth Catholic School in Wallaceburg was the highest-ranked school in Chatham-Kent for 2022 with a score of 8.2 out of 10.
Queen Elizabeth II Public School in Chatham saw the greatest decline in Chatham-Kent, falling from a score of 5.1 out of 10 in 2019 to 0.9 in 2022. The school was also the lowest-ranked school in the municipality.
Only seven of Chatham-Kent’s elementary schools met or exceeded the provincial average of six out of 10.
For the complete results on all ranked schools, click here.
