Methodology

Each school is measured on up to seven indicators:

• Academic results— average EQAO achievement across subjects (Grade 3 & 6 reading, writing, math for elementary; Grade 9 math for secondary), on the 0–4 provincial achievement scale.
• Below-standard rate — the share of tests below the provincial standard (Level 3). Lower is better.
• Improvement — the absolutechange in a school's EQAO average since 2021–22. A school that improves is rewarded even if other schools improved too — we don't grade improvement on a curve.
• Gender equity — how evenly boys and girls perform. Smaller gaps score higher.
• Student experience— the share of positive responses on EQAO's student questionnaire (e.g., liking reading and math, feeling prepared).
• Program richness — breadth of programs offered: French Immersion, IB, AP, gifted, arts, STEM.
• Extracurriculars — an estimated measure of arts and STEM activity detected on school websites.

Safety would be an eighth indicator, but Ontario does not currently publish school-level suspension and expulsion data. The slider exists on the rankings page and will be enabled if the data becomes available.

1. Each indicator is standardized into a z-score against all Ontario schools at the same level (elementary or secondary), so different units can be combined fairly.
2. The z-scores are combined using weights — either one of our presets or the weights you set with the sliders. If an indicator is missing for a school, its weight is redistributed across the available indicators.
3. The weighted composite is re-standardized and mapped onto a 0–10 scale using a linear formula with cutoffs at z = +2.2 (score 10) and z = −3.29 (score 0).
4. Schools are ranked in descending order of their score; ties share a rank.

• Balanced (default) — academics 35%, below-standard 20%, improvement 15%, student experience 10%, gender equity 5%, programs 5%, extracurriculars 5% (safety 5% held in reserve).
• Academics Only— test-score indicators only: academic results, below-standard rate, improvement and gender gaps. What you'd use if you only care about standardized results.
• Opportunity-Adjusted — puts the most weight on improvement (30%) and student experience (15%), so schools that lift their students score well regardless of their starting point or neighbourhood.

Research consistently shows standardized test results correlate strongly with family income and other socioeconomic factors. We show each school's context — neighbourhood income (with male/female splits), the share of children in low-income households, parents' education, English language learners, special education — so you can interpret the numbers fairly. None of these demographics ever enter the score: a school is never marked up or down for who its students are.

• Small differences are noise. Treat schools within a few tenths of a point of each other as effectively tied.
• Small schools are suppressed. EQAO withholds results for very small cohorts to protect privacy, so some schools have missing indicators.
• Program data is partially unverified.About 30% of school websites could not be scanned; those schools show an "unverified" notice and administrators can claim their listing to correct it.
• A score is not a verdict. No ranking captures teaching quality, community, or how a specific child will thrive. Visit the school.

Scores are recalculated annually when EQAO releases new school-level results (typically in the fall). Questions or corrections: hello@schoolscope.ca.