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Nantyr showing improvement in rankings
by Michelle Minnoch

The Simon Fraser Institute released their rankings for Ontario High Schools last week, and our very own Nantyr Shores showed improvement; scoring a full point over last year.

That being said, Nantyr scored 5.6 out of ten.

Regarding grade 9 math, we scored .2 points higher in the academic level, and .7 points in the applied math section. In a section grading whether students passed the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test on their first or subsequent attempts, we scored two points higher in first attempts, and two points lower for the subsequent attempts. The Failure Rate, which is the percent of tests combined, judged attempts that were unsuccessful or below Level 3 (below grade 9 math), was at 33.6, which is an almost ten point improvement over last year (in 2005, we had 44.8).

Looking at five years worth of data, Nantyr students have made quite an improvement. In 2002, 8.8% of students did not submit test data for grade 9 math. This year, only 1.7% did not get graded.

There were 25.3% of the students taking the tests identified for special needs, which is the largest percentage in Simcoe County. The tests also take into account the average number of years the most educated parent in the family has, as the Fraser Institute believes that "higher values of this statistic are commonly thought to be associated with better student performance."

The tests also show the difference in the level of achievement between girls and boys. Although over the years the boys have done better than the girls, the difference this year is the lowest, at 0.07.

Nantyr Shores is not only improving academically, but their presence in the community is strong and positive. This Saturday, various students are giving up their day for Spin 4 Kids; a course was held last week for the students regarding Internet bullying; Nantyr is host to visiting Japanese students throughout the year.

While the Town only has one high school at this point, the kids aren't doing that bad. We have made significant academic improvements since 2003.

No matter who you are or where you went to high school, remember, it wasn't always that easy. To be honest, in this day and age, I am glad I went to high school when I did. Things seemed a lot easier back then. Or am I just getting older? Way to go Nantyr, keep it up!