Tracking the changes:

“Schools are getting better,” says AIMS Research Manager Bobby O’Keefe. “Not everywhere and not every year but the early indications are that even schools with some of the worst grades in the early years are moving up over time.”

While there is movement in both directions, New Brunswick has had several schools show improvement in the past five years, with Anglophone and francophone sectors having a total of nine schools show an improvement of two grade levels.

In the Anglophone sector, two schools saw an improvement from a ‘C’ to a ‘B-’, including Grand Manan Community School, despite a dip this year from an ‘A-’, primarily due to a drop in results for its students in university and community college. Harbour View High School in Saint John also improved to a ‘B-’, while four schools, Miramichi Valley High School, Petitcodiac Regional School, Riverview High School, and Tobique Valley High School in Plaster Rock, all moved up in grade from a ‘C+’ to a ‘B’.

These six schools, from rural and urban communities, affluent to poor populations, and ranging in enrolment from 137 to over 1,100 students, show that all schools, no matter what size or situation, can improve.

As for this year’s report card, Upper Miramichi Regional High School in Boiestown achieves an ‘A’ grade and returns to the top spot in New Brunswick’s Anglophone sector, the same spot it held in AIMS Fifth Annual Report Card. Last year it was unranked because there wasn’t enough information on its students’ results at post-secondary institutions. Kennebecasis Valley High School maintains a ‘B+’ to take second place. Hartland Community School improved from a ‘C+’ last year to a ‘B+’ to rank third. Sir James Dunn Academy also saw a notable single year improvement (‘B-’ to ‘B+’).

Meanwhile, in the Francophone sector, École Aux quatre vents in Dalhousie has seen an improvement from a ‘C+’ to a ‘B’ and Centre La Fontaine in Néguac and École Clement Cormier in Bouctouche have both improved from a ‘C’ to a ‘B-’ since the fourth edition of the report card. Once again these schools come from a variety of communities with a wide range of enrolments.

This year, grades remained relatively consistent for schools in the New Brunswick francophone sector. École Marie-Gaétane stays in the top spot for the third consecutive year, maintaining an overall grade of ‘A-’. École Sainte-Anne in Fredericton ranked second, also maintaining its grade of ‘B+’. Only École secondaire Népisiguit saw a change in grade of more than two levels, falling from a ‘B’ to a ‘C+’ with small declines in many of its Achievement and Engagement measures. This also marks the first time we have enough information to grade Moncton’s École L’Odyssée since its opening in the 2005-2006 school year, and it garners a ‘C-’.

Whether the successes we see in the overall trends are due to fundamental changes at the schools, a change in staff, or the statistical aberration of consistently convincing parents to send only the overachieving kids to school, the AIMS report does not and can not say.

The AIMS Report Card is a descriptive tool only, meant to encourage informed engagement by the school community with the school. Now it is up to those who want to learn from or continue the early successes to ask the right questions and apply the lessons learned.

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For more information, contact:

Bobby O’Keefe, Research Manager
902-429-1143 or 902-222-0944