Ottawa secondary schools are generally following the provincial trend of fewer students placing below standard on provincial exams, according to a report card released Sunday.

The Fraser Institute's annual secondary school rankings said the percentage of students placing below standard was 26.9 per cent for the 2009-10 school year, compared to 29.3 per cent in 2005-06.

Report co-author Michael Thomas said it's a promising trend but there's still work to do.

"With more than a quarter of exams still falling below the provincial standard, there is room for academic improvement across the province," he said in a news release. "Our report card makes it easy for anybody to identify the areas in which individual schools most need to improve to provide their students with the best possible education."

Many Eastern Ontario schools have seen their below-standard numbers drop, with a few notable exceptions.

Centre Hastings Secondary School in Madoc had 22.9 per cent of students below standard in 2005-06, but 42.9 per cent in the latest rankings. Smiths Falls District Collegiate Institute went from 25.8 per cent to 38.4 per cent in the same time frame.

As far as the overall rankings, St. Michael Catholic High School in Kemptville placed second in the province with a 9.6 overall, with only 3.5 per cent of their exams below standard. The school scored a perfect ten in both 2006 and 2007's report.

Colonel By Secondary School in Gloucester was fourth provincially with a 9.1, and Earl of March Secondary in Kanata was tenth with an 8.9.

On the bottom end, General Vanier Secondary School in Cornwall placed 677 out of 727 with a 3.4, but has cut its percentage of below-standard exams by 4.5 per cent since 2006.

St. Lawrence High School in Cornwall scored a 3.8 overall, and Queen Elizabeth Collegiate in Kingston had a 3.9.

Each of those schools had a average parental income in the $40,000s and a percentage of students with special needs over 25 per cent – Queen Elizabeth had 49.1 per cent of such students.

The rankings take into account scores on Grade 9 provincial math exams and the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test, differences in performance of male and female students, and the number of Grade 9 tests not written.

The Fraser Institute is a Canadian independent research agency that works with health care, education and taxes. Its Ontario elementary school rankings were released in March.