The CAP Rankings: An Explanation
The 
CAP Rankings are the school rankings that clients of SusiHomes have had access to for years, now dressed up in a new set of clothes. They have been the main tool we use to find worthy school districts for our clients to move into. Our rankings have always been determined using the DECS Method, and our recommendations to our clients have always been based on these rankings. We have normally grouped school districts into “Primary Recommendations” (
Blue Cap schools) and “Alternative Recommendations” (
Green Cap schools), and these are the only school districts where our clients search for homes. Now these recommendations are being made available to the general public.
How Are the CAP Rankings determined?
They are determined using a formula that respects the DECS Method, whereby Demographics, EQAO results, Consistency, and the Support teachers receive are all factored into the equation. Like all school rankings, ours starts with performance scores, which in this case are the EQAO test results.
Each year, EQAO (Education Quality and Accountability Office) results from the testing done in the spring months are released to the public in September. For elementary schools, the subjects of Reading, Writing and Arithmetic are tested, and from those tests, each student is assigned a Level. Levels 3 and 4 are the pass levels. The percentage of a school’s students at each level, in each subject, are the figures released by the Ontario government. SusiHomes manually records each individual figure for each subject in each school, every year. This means that we now have a massive database to work from.
First, the average level for each subject (Reading, Writing, Mathematics), in each grade (Grades 3 and 6), is calculated. Next, the previous seven EQAO-tested years were weighted so that the results from recent years would be more important than older years to a school’s ultimate rating. Each of the three subjects would then have its own 7-year rating; these ratings were added together and divided by three to arrive at a composite rating for each subject in each grade. Finally, the scores from each grade were computed together, with Grade 3 scores given weight slightly higher than Grade 6 scores, to arrive at a composite 7-Year EQAO rating for the school.
These composite 7-Year EQAO ratings are gathered for each school in city/area, and EQAO rankings are thus established. However, while EQAO scores are an important gauge on a school’s performance, it is certainly not the only factor parents should consider when looking for worthy schools to send their children to.
Because of socio-economic factors and demographics, it is logical to assume that some schools appear to be much EASIER to teach at than others – that is, those “easier” schools would be much more likely, in our opinion, to corral higher EQAO pass-rates. To some, this might be unfair and unjust, and this is why we established the Teacher Support Index in an attempt to “level the playing field”.
The Teacher Support Index
A Teacher Support Index (TSI) is needed for the following reason: All things being equal, if a school is the EASIEST to teach at (i.e. has the most “support”), then that school should have the highest pass-rates. Conversely, if a school is the HARDEST to teach at, then that school should have the lowest pass-rates. The team at SusiHomes.com feel that deviations from these assumptions may provide an authoritative glimpse into a school administration’s actual performance relative to other schools in the Board. That is, those schools that are performing above socio-economic expectations can be (rightly or wrongly) assumed to employ exemplary teachers and administrators, while those performing below expectations should be concerned. A controversial assumption? Perhaps. But it is the opinion of the team at SusiHomes.com that it is still clearly relevant to parents who need to quantify performance for comparison.
The TSI is calculated from an involved formula that considers three sources that can effect a teacher’s ability to easily teach: home situation, parental education and student language barriers (ESL). The validity of these sources came through casual discussions with professional educators during 2008 and 2009, and are also indicated through several Canadian journal articles. The home situation takes into account the median household income in a school district, and also the percentage of single parents in a school district. Generally (yet not as a rule), higher income households produce students that are easier to teach, and single parents often have a much more difficult time staying atop their child’s progress in school. Teachers can teach, but in our opinion they need help from either their student, their student’s parents, or both.
Parental education is also a mitigating factor in a teacher’s “support”. It is true that those parents who have a university education have a far greater interest in making sure their children do well in school, while those parents with a high school education (or having no high school diploma at all) will generally have less of an interest in this. And, of course, student language barriers in the classroom, i.e. the amount of ESL students, are also a factor for teachers. The numbers pulled for the TSI come from EQAO website itself, the latest Census, and Environics Analytics (a reputable and well-respected data/demographics company). The latest available data is used each year.
Although the above sources of difficulty have been agreed upon by both professional educators and academic studies, they are, of course, simply generalizations. For instance, there are many single parents who do better jobs with their children than double parents, just as there are children from high-income families that are petulant and disrespectful and can make a teacher’s life miserable at times. Yet we at SusiHomes.com believe that generally, the above sources of difficulty are valid. All of the above data is simply cut and pasted from from EQAO reports and also from custom-built, school-district-specific demographics that were purchased from Environics Analytics.
The Potency Rankings
po·ten·cy [poht-n-see]
noun – capacity to be, become, or develop; potentiality.
Once a school’s Teacher Support Index (TSI) is established, we can compare a school’s “anticipated” results with its actual results. For example, if “School A” had the 10th-best EQAO scores over the last seven years, and they are considered to be the 4th-easiest school to teach at, it can be said that this school is performing slightly BELOW expectations. Conversely, if “School B” had the 42nd-best EQAO scores over the last seven years, but they are considered the 71st-easiest school (4th-hardest, of 74 schools) to teach at, it can be said that this school is performing well ABOVE expectations.
And those schools that are performing above expectations have inherent capacity for growth and development; that is, they have undeniable potential to perform much better in the EQAO tests and likely could if their socio-economic demographics were more favourable.
Thus a school that is performing above expectations is said to have a high potency. This is crucial information to a disciplined parent because it is our opinion that any school with high potency WILL teach their child to their full potential, as long as they receive the usual and proper support at home. And here is how we quantify that potency (using Mississauga Public schools in 2019 as an example):
When comparing an individual school’s EQAO pass-levels to the Board Average, we come up with a figure relative to 2.900 (the Board Average). The highest number a school received in the Peel Board is 3.225 (Kenollie). The lowest number a school received in the Peel Board is 2.526 (school name withheld). These are figures that are relative to the norm.
When comparing the ranking of EQAO pass-rates to the ranking of Easiest Schools To Teach At (using the TDI) we come up with an Expected Ranking Differential. In the previous example, “School A” would have an Expected Ranking Differential of -6, while “School B” would fare better with an Expected Ranking Differential of +29. These too, then, are figures that are relative to the norm.
As it turns out, both of these figures are relative to the same norm (an average school), and thus we can create a parallel from the top-ranked EQAO school (Kenollie) to the top-ranked Expected Ranking Differential school (Burnhamthorpe). We can use the top-ranked EQAO school number as a multiplier to the actual EQAO number of the top-ranked Expected Ranking Differential school. And going on down the list, we can use the 9th-ranked EQAO school (Castlebridge) number as a multiplier to the actual EQAO number of the 9th-ranked Expected Ranking Differential school (Barondale), and so on! This resulting number, then, represents a school’s POTENCY.
The Potency Rankings, then, reflects what a school’s performance may be if their potential were to be realized through an equalization of socio-economic conditions across the city.
Consistency
But wait – there’s more! The last factor we take into consideration is the consistency of each school’s EQAO performance, and it could be the most important factor for many parents, in our opinion. Each school is given a Consistency Rating between 1.0 and 5.0, and a higher number has a more positive effect on the school’s final ranking than a lower number. We believe that if a school is more consistent in their school test results, whether it be excellent or mediocre results, this is a school that should be “more rewarded” than a school who have only had great EQAO results for a year or two, or only have great results in one grade, or even one subject! Thus, consistency is worthy factor in the development and calculation of our rankings.
And voila!
The Potency Rankings are then coupled with the 7-Year EQAO Rankings, and then further modified by the Consistency Rating, to arrive at a final ranking, called the CAP Ranking. From the CAP Rankings we can then decide, in our opinions, which schools are Blue Cap schools and which are Green Cap schools! (The rest of the schools
Please note that the only function the CAP Rankings serve is simply another tool Susi has at her disposal to help families find real estate in neighbourhoods they think they’d like to live in. And there are many other factors in choosing a school district beside the CAP colour of the school itself. In fact, there are many other factors in choosing a school than the CAP Ranking itself! They are published on this website as a strong opinion of Susi Kostyniuk and her team at SusiHomes.