The report card, co-authored by AIMS vice-president Charles Cirtwill and Memorial University of Newfoundland professor Rick Audas, is the second annual comparative analysis of the performance of schools throughout the region. This year the report card is based on much richer and more varied data provided by school boards, departments of education and post secondary institutions.
Even though the school report card integrates much more school-level data than before, the authors point out that the grades achieved by individual schools around the region are quite stable, underlining again the soundness of the methodology used in the Report Card. With the provinces incrementally improving their measurement and reporting of school results, AIMS has been able to provide a more complete picture of achievement in:
• Language arts
• Science
• Mathematics
• Humanities
• Post-secondary performance
• “Hold” and “retention” rates for Grade 10 students;
Additionally, in all provinces where the data allows, three-year rolling averages are used to smooth out spikes in year-over-year achievement and to assess schools and not groups of students.
One of the foundations of the AIMS report card is the assessment of school performance measured against reasonable expectations. The study takes into account that all schools are not playing on a level field and adjusts its grades correspondingly using its proven methodology.
For detailed rankings for each province:
Newfoundland and Labrador
New Brunswick Anglophone
New Brunswick Francophone
Nova Scotia
Prince Edward Island