Fraser Institute not a concern for KCSS
By Jon Yaneff

King City Secondary School did well while being evaluated recently by The Fraser Institute Report.

Although KCSS principal Teresa Micone liked the recognition, she said the school views different data when setting its values.

"It's nice to be recognized by your accomplishments," stated Micone. "But, we look at EQAO (Education Quality and Accountability Office) data to help with the next steps and strategies to improve math and literacy scores.

The Fraser Institute Report is like apples and oranges, it doesn't rank in terms of helping us improve."

The EQAO handles Grade 9 Assessment of Mathematics and the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT).

King City's provincial rank for 2006/07 was 138 out of 725 Ontario schools with a rating of 7.7 in the recently released report card. During the last five years their rank was 261 out of 675 schools with a 6.9 rating. They have improved over the last five years where their rating was 6.3 in 2003.

King City has also improved in most academic performance categories, including average level of Grade 9 math (academic), which went from 2.55 (2003) to 2.82 (2007). Also average level Grade 9 applied math (1.55 to 2.32) and OSSLT first-time eligible (79.2 per cent to 91.4 per cent) saw improvement.