The annual Fraser Institute report card on Ontario schools places most of Dufferin County's elementary schools below average, based on the results of standardize testing in Grades 3 and 6.

"These test results are not a true indicator of how good our schools are," said Maggie McFazden spokesperson for the Upper Grand District School Board "They are only based on one thing and there is a list of things that should be considered."

She says the school board doesn't rank its schools based solely on the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) results. "There a number of determining factors."

The board takes into account the school environment, the safety in the school, parent interaction and the achievement based on the individual school's improvement plan.

"The other factor is that families can't necessarily shop for schools in Ontario, unless they are moving into an area and then all factors should be considered before making a determination whether the school is good or not."

However, the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board's communications officer, Nancy Marshall, said her board "believes that rankings based on EQAO results are useful in providing a general sense of a school's performance." She added that EQAO scores and other indicators are used to develop and implement a plan to improve student achievement.

"However, caution must be exercised with respect to ranking schools. Ranking provides no more information about why scores are high or low; it invites simplistic and misleading comparisons that ignore the particular circumstances affecting achievement in each school and distracts from addressing the more critical issues of how to improve learning for all students."

According to the Catholic board's website, "EQAO acts as a catalyst increasing the success of Ontario students by measuring their achievement in reading, writing and mathematics against a common curriculum benchmark.

As an independent provincial agency, EQAO plays a pivotal role by conducting provincewide tests at key points in every student's education."

EQAO tests students in Grades 3 and 6 in reading, writing and mathematics. Grade 9 students are tested in mathematics and in Grade 10 students write an Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) based on reading and writing, a requirement to pass before graduation

The Fraser Institute, an independent research and educational organization that ranks schools based on the EQAO results, has published a report card for Ontario's Grades 3 and 6 including 2,812 English and French, public and separate elementary schools.

Following are the results for the ranking of local schools based on the Fraser Institute's 2007 report card:

In Orangeville: Princess Elizabeth PS 803, Montgomery Village PS 1333, Mono Amaranth PS 1529, Princess Margaret PS 1584, Credit Meadows ES 1726, Island Lake PS 2129, Parkinson Centennial PS 2413.

In Shelburne: Centennial Hylands ES 910, Highland Heights 2034.

Grand Valley and rural schools: East Garafraxa PS 1036, Primrose ES 1262, Laurelwoods ES 1599, Grand Valley and District PS 2129.

Orangeville Catholic schools: St. Andrew 2173, St. Benedict 742, St. Peter 2305.

The report card used the average level of achievement by students in Grade 3 and 6 EQAO tests. The EQAO achievement level 1 and 2 suggests the student has not met provincial standard. Level 3 is considered provincial standard and level 4 indicates well above the standard.

The Fraser Institute assigned a numerical value of 1 for level 1, 2 for level 2, 3 for level 3 (the provincial standard and 4 if level 4 was attained.

Only three local schools achieved a score of 3 for the Grade 3 mathematics at East Garafraxa PS, Centennial Hylands ES and Princess Elizabeth PS.

There are no 4s and no 1s assigned to any local school in the report card. Most of the school results fall between 2.1 and 2.9, the average being 2.7.

For more information about the Fraser Institute report card visit www. fraserinstitute.ca.