The Fraser Institute has released its annual rankings of Ontario's elementary schools based on academic performance.
The report card ranks 2,975 public, Catholic, and independent elementary schools based on nine academic indicators derived from the results of province wide standardized testing in Grade 3 and Grade 6.
Bellewood Public School earned the highest mark in Windsor-Essex, scoring a 9 out of 10.
The score placed Bellewood 87th out of the 2,975 schools examined by the Fraser Institute.
St. William Catholic School in Emeryville was the second highest rated school in Windsor-Essex, earning an 8.7 out of 10 and a province wide ranking of 137th.
St. Pius X Catholic School in Tecumseh received a score of 8.4 out of 10, placing 207th in Ontario.
At the end of the scale in Windsor-Essex was Frank W. Begley Public School in Windsor.
It earned a 1.5 out of 10 to place 2,933rd out of the 2,975 schools that were examined.
Coronation Public School and Marlborough Public School, both in Windsor, received a 2.4 out of 10, finishing 2,863 in the overall province wide rankings.
Fraser Institute Senior Fellow Peter Cowley says you get a new snapshot of these schools every year but one bad year doesn't mean a school is bad.
"The question becomes how are we going to improve our results? What are we going to do? As I say, one of the great places to start is to look at the schools close by to the one your kids go to and see how their ratings are," he says. "If they have a good rating, why not yours?"
Cowley says schools can improve by using the rankings to compare local schools or those facing similar issues.
"Certainly there's a value to looking at the rankings, for principals especially, looking at the rankings and saying 'lets look at the schools close by.' Especially ones that service similar students and see if there are any of them that are doing better than we are," he says.
Cowley points out that schools that cater to a particular student populations, such as those with a high number of new Canadians, can compare with similar schools across Ontario.
"Now you can go as a principal, go and have a chat with the principal of the higher performing school, and say, 'We're not competing; we're all part of the same process. What is it you can tell us that you're doing that you think has been substantially resulting in your better performance?,'" he says.
The Fraser Institute report says the province wide average is a 6.0 out of 10.
Click here to find more information on the results of all ranked schools. You can also compare the performance of different schools across Windsor-Essex and Ontario.