Private schools top list

Photo: Contributed - Kimberley Truman

Private schools continue to lead the way, according to the Fraser Institute's annual ranking of secondary schools in the province.

Results mirror those contained within the elementary school report released in March.

A pair of Kelowna schools, Kelowna Christian School (20) and Heritage Christian (21) made their way into the top 25.

KCS received an overall rating of 8.6 out of 10 while Heritage Christian had an 8.5 score.

Okanagan Mission Secondary was the top Okanagan public school on the list coming in at 34. OKM was 17 a year ago and has a five-year average ranking of 21.

Five other Okanagan schools cracked the top 100 including Kelowna Secondary (44), Kalamalka (53), Vernon Christian (53), Immaculata (78) and George Elliot (91).

According to the Fraser Institute, rankings are based on seven indicators.

These include:

• The average exam mark in the grade-10, grade-11, and grade-12 courses that include a mandatory provincial exam
• Percentage of grade-10, grade-11, and grade-12 mandatory provincial examinations failed
• Average difference between the school mark and the examination mark in the courses considered in (1) and (2) above
• Average difference between male and female students in their exam mark in English 10
• Average difference between male and female students in their exam mark in Mathematics 10
• Graduation rate
• Delayed advancement rate.

Vernon Secondary made a large jump to 13 going from a five year average score of 5.7 to 6.2.

Conversely, Mount Boucherie ranked number 224 going from an average score of 5.6 to 4.9.

York House in Vancouver was again ranked number one.

In all, 293 schools were ranked as part of the report.