The Fraser Institute has released its annual rankings of Ontario's secondary schools based on academic performance.
The Report Card on Ontario's Secondary Schools ranks 689 public, Catholic, and independent schools based on eight academic indicators derived from provincewide test results.
The highest locally ranked school was St. Thomas of Villanova in LaSalle, which received a score of 8.2, placing 52 out of the 689 schools that were ranked.
The next highest-ranked school in the region was Tecumseh Vista, scoring a 7.8 to rank 87 in the province.
Sandwich Secondary School in LaSalle earned a 7.5 score to rank 138 out of 689 schools.
St. Anne Catholic Secondary School in Tecumseh and Vincent Massey Secondary School in Windsor both received a score of 7.4 to rank 154.
Peter Cowley, Senior Fellow Fraser Institute, says whenever they do a ranking like this the idea is to bring into one piece a number of different indicators of how schools are doing.
"How are they doing for instance in terms of ensuring that the kids acquire the materials that they need," says Cowley. "How they're doing when it they're in the position where they're taking tests. As they move along in their years it's obviously important for them to ensure that they're ready to go on both in secondary school and off into university.")
He says of course they talk about the overall ratings, but it's important to look below the surface and see whether or not they're improving or declining over time.
"For principals and people from the groups it's most important to say are we improving, and how are we doing compared to the schools nearby," he says.
Cowley says it's great to have a high a score, but it's even better to be on the upswing.
"One would always hope that in every school the principals, the teachers, and everyone else are well and happy to make sure that next year's results are better than those that we've had in the past," says Cowley.
The lowest-ranked schools in Windsor-Essex were Catholic Central and Kennedy, both in Windsor, which received a score of 2.3 to rank 660 in Ontario.