A local private school is ranked one of the best elementary schools in Ontario.
The Fraser Institute released its annual rankings of Ontario elementary schools, which showed Al-Sadeq Academy tied for first in the rankings out of 3,052 schools.
The school, located on Janette Avenue, excels in coding programs, financial literacy, digital drawing, and business computer applications.
The school is tied for first with 30 other schools, however, other Windsor-Essex schools made the list as well including Colchester North Public School, Bellewood Public School, and St. Pius X Catholic Elementary School.
Fraser ranks public, Catholic, and independent schools based on nine academic indicators obtained through provincewide test results.
Paige MacPherson, Senior Fellow with the Fraser Institute, says there are several success stories in the Windsor-Essex area.
"Al-Sadeq Academy in Windsor tied with other schools ranked number one in the province... that's out of over 3,000 public, Catholic, and independent schools... so a real success story there. As well, Colchester North in Essex ranked number 32, Bellewood in Windsor ranked number 42."
She says this is an academic ranking.
"We look at the average level of achievement of the Grade 3 EQAO scores, so the provincewide test scores in reading, writing, and math. We also look at the Grade 6 EQAO scores in reading, writing, and math. We look at the difference between male and females in average levels of achievement in Grade 6 reading, and math. And then we look at the percentage of EQAO assessments that did not meet the provincial standard."
MacPherson says any school can improve their ranking.
"And hopefully the parents at schools in the Windsor-Essex area, if maybe their rankings are not as high, they can look towards those schools that did rank quite high and maybe learn some best practices from there, or have a conversation with their school teacher, with their school principal, and ask what's making this school perform so strongly when our school is struggling."
These rankings are released annually, alongside secondary schools.
The full rankings list can be found by clicking here.