Several Edmonton elementary schools have been labeled as some of the fastest-improving schools across the province.

The christening was given by this year’s Fraser Institute School Report Cards.

According to the list, 42 provincial schools are showing improvement over previous years including Bannerman (score of 4.8), Pollard Meadows (score of 7.4), Westglen (score of 6.7), Virginia Park (score of 8.0), and Two Hills Mennonite (score of 4.8) among others.

Local schools that made it to the top 10 include Mount Pleasant (score of 10), Stratford (score of 9.7), Grandview Heights (score of 9.7) and St. Martin (score of 9.5).

“The two fastest improving schools in all of the province were Edmonton schools,” Fraser Institute’s Peter Cowley said.

“This is a very good sign for Edmonton, and the province, because really what it’s saying is it doesn’t matter where you start, it matters which direction you are going in.”

However, there were also several local schools on the lower end of the list.

John Barnett (score of 1.0), St. Catherine (score of 0.6), Calder (score of 0.4), Sifton (score of 0.1), St. Francis of Assisi (score of 0), Balwin (score of 0) and Ben Calf Robe-St. Clare were all listed in the bottom of the rankings.

Cowley, who co-authored the report, said when schools show poor results it is time for action.

“When a school starts going down that’s the time for parents to get even more active and say to the staff ‘What is it we are going to do in the way of improvement?’ Because the last thing you want to do is leave it and have the school results going down and down over many years.”

For the report, schools are given a score based on nine academic indicators using results from the annual provincial achievement tests.  

Edmonton Catholic School spokesperson Lori Nagy cautioned that the results do not give an in-depth depiction of individual student development.

“We do not feel it is an accurate representation to parents.

“It really is a snap shot in time and doesn’t show a student’s growth over the rest of the year.”

Nagy encouraged parents to use the report as just one part of their research when selecting a school.

With files from Jeff Harrington