The Boiestown high school was billed as the best in the province’s anglophone sector in an Atlantic think-tank report, but other capital-region high schools slipped in the ranks.

The Atlantic Institute of Market Studies is set to unveil its annual report card on Atlantic Canadian high schools this morning, but it provided The Daily Gleaner with a sneak peek.

Of the 46 New Brunswick high schools assessed in this seventh annual report, School District 18 took the top spot, as Upper Miramichi Regional High School in Boiestown was the only one to earn an A.

It wasn’t ranked in last year’s report card.

School District 1’s Ecole Sainte-Anne in Fredericton ranked second among francophone high schools, earning a B .

Fredericton High School ranked seventh among provincial high schools, slipping to a B from the B it earned last year.

Leo Hayes High School came in 15th in New Brunswick, holding steady with a B-. Stanley Regional High School earned the same mark, the think-tank found.

Oromocto High School dropped from a C to a C, while at the bottom of the pile was Minto Memorial High School with a D.

However, that D is better than it sounds, as it represents a bump up from the F it was given in last year’s AIMS report card.

“To see some improvement is a good thing,” said AIMS research manager Bobby O’Keefe.

“It’s a step in the right direction.”

He said the provincial average is B-.

O’Keefe said there were two general categories of measurement AIMS used to assess and rank high schools in the province: achievement and engagement.

Achievement measurements included the grades students earn in school and on standardized tests, as well as how they perform academically after leaving high school.

Engagement measurements are those that examine how well students move from grade to grade and how many explore further schooling after high school, as well as attendance levels.

The overall message of this latest report card is a positive one, O’Keefe said, noting that a lot of schools improved over last year’s survey.

As for those that lost ground, he said the purpose of the study isn’t to identify areas that could be improved.

O’Keefe said Monday school administrators and teachers are in better positions to determine what could be done to boost marks in future report cards.

He said the research team has identified a possible cause for some of the lower marks, especially for the Minto high school.

The elimination of provincial exams in New Brunswick several years ago corresponds with a decline in Minto’s marks, he said.

Minto Memorial also has a lower rate of students who go on to post-secondary education, which impacts its grade, he said.

The elimination of those provincial exams could account for slightly poorer performances in New Brunswick schools, O’Keefe said.

When performances are regularly monitored and reported, he said, it leads to stronger pushes at the schools to improve.