Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) released its eighth annual high school report card last week, and handed out a B- to Digby Regional High School.
The report card grades schools on ‘achievement and engagement’, and AIMS—a conservative think-tank—says it uses school and provincial exam marks from math, science, humanities and language arts classes to grade academic achievement.
The engagement portion is graded based on student commitment to education, such as attendance, pass rates and pursuit of post-secondary education.
AIMS also used information such as enrollment, pupil teacher ratio, teacher training and socio-economic status.
The top three schools in Nova Scotia are Cape Breton Highlands Academy, Charles P. Allen High in Bedford, and Dr. John Hugh Gillis Regional in Antigonish.
“The report is a comparison of schools done by a private institution, but their methods do not conform with how the school boards measure their success,” said Tri-County Regional School Board director of programs and student services, Bill Curry.
He said there are holes in the report and questions how AIMS came up with its rating system.
