P.E.I. high schools have maintained their performance for several years, but the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies expects them to get better. The think-tank released its annual report card on Atlantic Canadian high schools Thursday. Eight Island high schools were assessed, with Souris Regional High again ranking at the top. “They continue to have solid results in actually keeping kids in the school and moving them from grade to grade. They have good results in terms of preparing kids for post-secondary studies,” said AIMS executive vice-president Charles Cirtwill. A big part of the assessment is the grades received by students, and that lowered the marks for Bluefield High, which placed at the bottom of the rankings. “But it is eighth place with a C-plus. So again it’s a good solid school,” noted Cirtwill. “You take a look at their teacher-assigned grades, however, and it’s C-minuses, C-pluses, a B, and on the humanities side they are performing at a D. So their kids are getting considerably lower marks in those humanity grades than other kids on the Island.” Cirtwill said P.E.I.’s new provincewide assessments in the early grades will eventually bode well for high schools.