The metamorphosis of school boards into service centers has not significantly improved student success, reveals the new version of a ranking dedicated to them.
The Journal today presents the very first ranking of school service centers, produced from data compiled by the Fraser Institute, which has already been publishing rankings of secondary schools for many years.
A similar exercise has already been published twice, but it was a ranking of school boards, headed by elected officials, before the Legault government transformed them into service centers in 2020, thereby abolishing elections. schools.
At that time, several players in the education sector questioned the relevance of this change in governance.
Few tangible results
Four years later, it is difficult to see a tangible impact on student success, at least if we rely on the “overall rating” assigned by the Fraser Institute to all school service centers, whose average of 5.5 is exactly the same as in 2019.
Rankings of School Service Centers
Here is the ranking of school service centers in Quebec*
| Rang | School service center | Overall rating | Schools listed | For five years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | of the Coast | 7,7 | 1 | nd |
| 2 | Discoverers | 6,9 | 4 | + |
| 3 | of the Laurentians | 6,6 | 3 | + |
| 3 | from Kamouraska-Rivière-du-Loup | 6,6 | 3 | + |
| 5 | des Bois-Francs | 6,5 | 6 | – |
| 6 | from Rivière-du-Nord | 6,3 | 7 | – |
| 6 | Marguerite-Bourgeoys | 6,3 | 12 | – |
| 8 | of the Islands | 6,2 | 1 | – |
| 8 | Hautes-Laurentides | 6,2 | 1 | – |
| 8 | of the Three Lakes | 6,2 | 3 | – |
| 11 | Energy | 6,1 | 5 | – |
| 11 | of the Great Lordships | 6,1 | 4 | = |
| 11 | from Laval | 6,1 | 7 | + |
| 11 | of the Seigneurie-des-Mille-Îles | 6,1 | 11 | + |
| 11 | Navigators | 6,1 | 4 | + |
| 11 | from Rouyn-Noranda | 6,1 | 2 | + |
| 17 | Patriots | 6 | 7 | – |
| 17 | of Lake Témiscamingue | 6 | 2 | = |
| 17 | of the Sherbrooke Region | 6 | 4 | + |
| 17 | Draveurs | 6 | 4 | + |
| 17 | from Val-des-Cerfs | 6 | 6 | + |
| 22 | in the Heart of the Valleys | 5,9 | 2 | + |
| 22 | of Monts-et-Marées | 5,9 | 2 | + |
| 24 | of the First Lordships | 5,8 | 7 | = |
| 25 | of Hautes-Rivières | 5,7 | 5 | + |
| 26 | of James Bay | 5,6 | 3 | – |
| 26 | of Portneuf | 5,6 | 3 | = |
| 26 | Tributaries | 5,6 | 11 | = |
| 26 | Summits | 5,6 | 4 | + |
| 26 | of Lac-Abitibi | 5,6 | 1 | + |
| 31 | of the Estuary | 5,5 | 4 | – |
| 31 | of Portages-de-l’Outaouais | 5,5 | 5 | – |
| 31 | from the South Coast | 5,5 | 7 | + |
| 34 | from La Jonquière | 5,4 | 2 | – |
| 34 | of the River and Lakes | 5,4 | 4 | – |
| 34 | from the Pays-des-Bleuets | 5,4 | 4 | + |
| 34 | of Beauce-Etchemin | 5,4 | 7 | + |
| 34 | of Lac-Saint-Jean | 5,4 | 4 | + |
| 34 | of the Middle North Shore | 5,4 | 1 | + |
| 40 | of the Hauts-Cantons | 5,3 | 4 | = |
| 40 | from Montreal | 5,3 | 24 | = |
| 40 | from Pointe-de-l’Île | 5,3 | 7 | + |
| 43 | from Charlevoix | 5,2 | 2 | – |
| 43 | René-Lévesque | 5,2 | 6 | – |
| 43 | of Chemin-du-Roy | 5,2 | 6 | – |
| 43 | you Fer | 5,2 | 3 | – |
| 43 | Oaks | 5,2 | 4 | – |
| 43 | from Saint-Hyacinthe | 5,2 | 4 | = |
| 43 | of the Capital | 5,2 | 7 | + |
| 43 | Appalachia | 5,2 | 3 | + |
| 51 | of the Riveraine | 5,1 | 3 | + |
| 52 | Lighthouses | 5 | 2 | + |
| 53 | Marie-Victorin | 4,9 | 9 | – |
| 53 | of the Rives-du-Saguenay | 4,9 | 3 | – |
| 55 | of Gold and Woods | 4,8 | 3 | – |
| 56 | by Sorel-Tracy | 4,6 | 1 | + |
| 57 | of the Vallée-des-Tisserands | 4,3 | 3 | – |
| 58 | Harricana | 4,2 | 2 | nd |
| 58 | of the Samaras | 4,2 | 10 | + |
| 60 | Hauts-Bois-de-l’Outaouais | 3,8 | 3 | = |
| 61 | Chic-Chocs | 3,7 | 4 | – |
Source : Institut Fraser
*English-speaking and special status school boards do not appear in this ranking. See the details below to better understand how school service centers are classified.
This “overall rating”, which is based mainly on the results of students in the fourth and fifth secondary ministerial tests, corresponds to the average obtained by the secondary schools of the school service centers.
“In terms of academic results, it hasn’t changed anything,” says Marc St-Pierre, a former school board general director who was a consultant to service centers.
This transformation, however, led to a centralization of power in the hands of general management, over which Quebec now has greater control, he adds.
If no overall improvement is noted, the public network has still managed to maintain its performance despite the upheavals of the pandemic, while the “overall rating” of the private network has suffered a slight decline during the same period, going from 7.6 to 7.5.
In the public English-speaking network, where elected officials still head nine school boards, on the other hand, we see a slight increase, with an overall rating which went from 5.4 in 2019 to 5.5 in 2023.
However, their number is smaller, which can lead to more fluctuations over the years.
Service centers that are improving
Even if the public network seems to be standing still, certain service centers have managed to significantly increase the results of their students, such as that of Hautes-Rivières, in Montérégie, which experienced the greatest improvement compared to the average of the five recent years.
• Also read: Laurentides service center: countering the dropout… of school staff
A very small school service center, that of Littoral, on the Lower North Shore, also finds itself at the top of the ranking, thanks to the Mgr-Scheffer secondary school, located in Blanc-Sablon.
The biggest increases
| School service center | Overall rating | No. of schools listed | Increase vs average over 5 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| des Hautes-Rivières (Montérégie) | 5,7 | 5 | 0,7 |
| Sorel-Tracy (Montérégie) | 4,6 | 1 | 0,6 |
| Monts-et-Marées (Bas-Saint-Laurent and Gaspésie) | 5,9 | 2 | 0,6 |
| Kamouraska-Rivière-du-Loup (Bas-St-Laurent) | 6,6 | 3 | 0,6 |
| Val-des-Cerfs (Estrie) | 6 | 6 | 0,6 |
| of Appalachia (Chaudière-Appalaches) | 5,2 | 3 | 0,6 |
Located in the Quebec region, the Découvreurs school service center comes in second place. However, this is a less surprising result, since all its secondary schools are located in very advantaged areas, underlines Marc St-Pierre.
“The more schools you have located in advantaged areas, the more likely you are to find yourself at the top of the list. The opposite is also true,” he says, speaking of a “general trend” that is difficult, but not impossible, to curb.
In this context, the good performance of the Énergie school service center, located in Mauricie, deserves to be highlighted, since the organization ranks 11e rank, while almost all of its schools are disadvantaged.
Even if this ranking exercise is not very well received in the school network, Mr. St-Pierre believes that it remains relevant.
“We can’t help but not look at these figures,” he says. We must look at them lucidly, being aware that it must be used to ask the right questions to move forward and make things change.”
How are school service centers classified?
- This list of Journal ranks school service centers based on an “overall rating” (the score, varying between 0 and 10, that appears in the rankings), a measure developed by the Fraser Institute.
- This indicator is based largely on the results of students in the fourth and fifth secondary ministerial exams in June 2023, to which are added in particular the gap between boys and girls as well as the proportion of students who show a delay in their school career.
- The rating assigned to a service center corresponds to the average of the overall rating obtained for its secondary schools.
Up or down?
- The trend indicates whether the school board’s overall rating is increasing (+), decreasing (-) or stable (=), compared to the average of the last five years.
