The Fraser Institute has unveiled its highly anticipated annual report card on Ontario's secondary schools, providing parents and students across the Greater Toronto Area with crucial insights into academic performance. Released on Thursday, November 27, 2025, the comprehensive assessment evaluates 747 public, Catholic, and independent schools throughout the province.
Top Performing Schools in the GTA
Five institutions achieved perfect scores in this year's rankings, all located within the Greater Toronto Area. St. Robert Catholic High School in Thornhill leads the pack alongside St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic High School in Richmond Hill and St. Augustine Catholic High School in Markham. Toronto schools also demonstrated exceptional performance with St. Michael's Choir School and Ursula Franklin Academy rounding out the top-tier institutions.
Remarkably, seven of the schools ranked within the top ten showed measurable improvement compared to previous years, indicating positive academic trajectories. The complete top-ten list includes Pierre Elliott Trudeau in Markham, Olive Grove in Mississauga, Iroquois Ridge in Oakville, Cardinal Carter in Toronto, and Abbey Park in Oakville.
Understanding the Ranking Methodology
The Report Card on Ontario's Secondary Schools 2025 employs six distinct performance indicators derived from standardized provincial testing. These metrics are calculated using data from the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) assessments, which measure fundamental literacy and mathematics skills across the province.
Paige MacPherson, a senior fellow with the Fraser Institute, emphasized the value of this information for families. "Our report cards offer parents information they can't easily get anywhere else about how their child's school performs and how it compares to other schools in Ontario," MacPherson stated.
Schools Showing Significant Improvement
The report highlights several schools making substantial academic progress despite facing various challenges. Central Technical School in Toronto serves as a notable example, having improved its ranking from 0.2 in 2018 to 4.2 in the current assessment. This impressive growth occurred even though nearly 30% of the school's students have special needs requirements.
"It doesn't matter where a school is ranked or what challenges its students may face. The evidence is clear — all types of schools, located all over the province with different types of students, are all capable of improvement," MacPherson added, reinforcing the report's central message that every institution has potential for growth.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, six schools received scores of zero, including College Heights Secondary School in Guelph, Vezina Secondary School in Attawapiskat, St. Matthew Catholic Secondary School in Cornwall, St. Luke Catholic Learning Centre in Maple, l'Alliance in Iroquois Falls, and Manitouwadge High School.
Important Considerations for Parents
The Fraser Institute cautions that parents should not base school selection decisions solely on these academic rankings. The report card specifically measures performance on EQAO testing and does not capture the complete educational experience, including specialized programs, extracurricular activities, and other non-academic factors that contribute to a school's environment.
Another critical factor highlighted in the report is whether a school's academic performance shows improvement or decline over time, as represented by the five-year average ranking included alongside the current year's score.
For inclusion in the rankings, schools needed to have at least ten students who wrote the Grade 9 EQAO mathematics assessment and at least ten first-time or previously eligible writers of the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test during the 2023-24 academic year.
Parents and educators seeking complete results for all ranked schools can access the full database at compareschoolrankings.org.
