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发表于 2009-2-25 23:04:19
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看一下境内排名：Best high schools: tops for academics
BRIAN BERGMAN, KEN MACQUEEN and KARIN MARLEY | Aug 22, 2005
Old Scona Academic High School
Edmonton
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Lou Yaniw chuckles at the memory. Earlier this year, Old Scona's principal had a call from a couple who were expecting their first child. "They were asking about entrance requirements to our school for when their child reached high school age," says Yaniw. Headmasters at tony private schools may be accustomed to such calls, but for a public school principal they are a rarity. Then again, Old Scona is not your typical public school. Located in a leafy neighbourhood within walking distance of the University of Alberta, it attracts high academic achievers from across the city who must pass an entrance exam before being admitted. They are then immersed in a rigorous program of study aimed at encouraging academic excellence. The results: fully 97 per cent of Old Scona's students are on the honour roll, while 99 per cent of this year's graduating class is headed to university. And for the seventh consecutive year, Old Scona has been rated the top Alberta high school, public or private, in rankings compiled by the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute. Continued Below
Edmonton's oldest high school, Old Scona started out in 1908 as Strathcona Collegiate Institute. It functioned as a high school until the 1950s, when it was supplanted by the new, and much larger, Strathcona Composite High School. After using the old school as a junior high and a continuing education centre, the Edmonton Public School Board decided in 1976 to reinvent the institution as an alternative high school, dubbing it Old Scona.
Enrolment currently stands at 328. Old Scona takes in about 100 new students each year, though double that number apply for the privilege. "Many are attracted by the fact that it's a small school," says Yaniw. "Everyone knows everyone else and there is great peer support between the older and younger students."
During the regular school day, students concentrate on the core academic subjects such as English, math, social studies and science. Options and extra courses, including the widely respected fine arts and speech and debate programs, are reserved for lunchtime or after school. "The students here have a common goal, to pursue a profession of their choice," says Yaniw. "We have become, in effect, a university preparatory school. Some students come back and tell us that the transition to university was seamless. Some of them even say it's a piece of cake."
Unlike the situation at many private schools, at Old Scona it is merit, not money, that determines who gets to attend. "We have students whose parents work as hotel custodians and others who are millionaires," says Yaniw. "Some families drop off their child in a Mercedes, while other students commute 90 minutes each way on public transit."
The school also draws from a range of ethnic and religious backgrounds, as Grade 12 student Garnett Genuis discovered when he helped found an interfaith and philosophy discussion club that met over lunch. "We had Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Jews and atheists," says Genuis. Yet despite that diversity, there is very little friction at Old Scona, says Lillian Lim, another Grade 12 student. "We come here for the common purpose of learning," she says, "so there's a lot of mutual respect. We are similar and different at the same time."
Kennebecasis Valley High School
Quispamsis, N.B.
"It's cool to be smart here," says Kennebecasis principal Robert Munro, and the school's stacks of awards back him up. Students annually rack up about $600,000 worth of scholarships, and about three-quarters of graduates go on to post-secondary education, far above the national average of 30 per cent. Grade 12 student Charles Haché won the University of Toronto's National Biology Competition last spring, while his team placed second out of 439 schools. Munro credits the Advanced Placement program, a rigorous university-level curriculum introduced to the school 10 years ago, with further boosting expectations for all grades in a community where learning was already highly valued. But the leadership focus -- 100 students participate in a training conference every year, where they set goals for the school and form groups to meet them -- also helps keep the teens motivated to push themselves to the limit.
Colonel By Secondary School
Ottawa
Academic expectations at this school are sky-high, but principal France Thibault also insists that her students need to do something with all this knowledge. More than half the pupils are part of the rigorous International Baccalaureate program, 95 per cent go on to post-secondary education(over half of them in science), and 93 per cent were Ontario Scholars. But the school's emphasis on a well-rounded education means that its students regularly win gold in various music competitions, excel in a French public-speaking contest, and boast many elite athletes on its 32 teams. Thibault also places strong emphasis on community involvement -- including the global community, with school trips to Costa Rica and Thailand, where journalism students help support an HIV/AIDS orphanage. "If as a young person you are given the knowledge that with your skills you have the power to make a difference in the world around you," Thibault says, "then you carry forth that belief later in life." |
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发表于 2009-2-25 07:12:01
