Despite recently raised concerns about students across Ontario’s performance in provincial testing, the Chair of the Renfrew County Catholic District School Board says parents of kids attending local English Catholic schools don’t need to be concerned.
According to Bob Schraeder, over the last few years, students at RCCDSB schools have performed above-average in grade three, six and nine EQAO testing in both mathematics and English.
The online EQAO provincial results database corroborates Schraeder’s claims: the RCCDSB saw more students meet or exceed the provincial standard in all testing categories in each of the last three school years, except for grade nine mathematics in the 2022-23 school year.
Schraeder claims that the Ministry of Education has approached the RCCDSB in recent years asking how they’ve kept test results high. He attributed the board’s success to its culture of “everyone feeling that they’re part of a team,” as well as professional development opportunities offered to teachers.
The RCCDSB manages 22 schools in Renfrew County – 20 elementary schools and two high schools. Both those high schools ranked in the top 200 across Ontario in a recent report from the Fraser Institute.