Ecole HJ Cody School landed just shy of the top 50 in the Fraser Institute’s Alberta School Rankings for 2019.
The high school earned a score of 7.2 out of 10 when compared to the other 253 ranked schools in the province, which is an increase from 2018’s 5.9.
“They’re working hard and they’re on a really good path to the future and we’re proud of them and it’s great to see,” said Kurt Sacher, superintendent at Chinook’s Edge School Division.
According to the Fraser Institute’s website, the high school ratings are based on mandatory exams in the Grade 12 level diploma courses. The ratings also include grade-to-grade transition rates and graduation rates.
Sacher says the rankings are carried out independently by the institute and are not supported by the school board, but they are pleased to hear the acknowledgement of the school’s performance.
“… Any of those reports that come out where they take Alberta Education data and put it through their own lens keep in mind they have no way of assessing so many great things that happen in a high school,” Sacher explained, adding areas such as fine arts or career and technology studies aren’t recognized in the Fraser Institute report.
“There are so many other programs in that school that are why HJ Cody is doing so well and so many people working so hard in that area,” he continued, recalling the Albert Einstein quote ‘what counts can’t always be counted.’
On the other hand, he says seeing some of the academic indicators go up is “tremendous news” and the board is proud of HJ Cody for the increase in rating.
He said the positive trend is consistent with what they are seeing at HJ Cody and the positive momentum starts with good leadership.
“The administration in that school and then the staff, they’ve all been working so hard and they have a really positive culture that really cares about kids… and it’s spilling over into all of their programming,” said Sacher.
HJ Cody’s breakdown of score and rating can be found on the Fraser Institute’s School Rankings website.