BROCKVILLE – In his annual report to trustees at the Upper Canada District School Board December 10, Director of Education Ron Ferguson lauded the board reaching its graduation goal of 90 per cent in the last school year.
“It was a long time coming,” Ferguson told the board. “In the last three-to-four years we have really started to accelerate.”
Graduation rates were stuck in the mid-80 per cent range for about a 10-year period.
In the 2021-22 school year, the graduation rate was 86.9 per cent, rising to 87.6 per cent in 22-23, and 89.2 per cent in 23-24. Getting to a 90 per cent graduation rate has been a 22-year goal of the board.
“There is a lot of people who put a lot of effort into this, but the credit for this absolutely goes to the school staff, our educators and in particular our secondary students and their teachers.”
Stating it is a process from Kindergarten throughout a student’s school career, he said secondary staff ensured that students could get “across the line.”
Ferguson also highlighted the board’s SST Lift program, which helps students develop an alternate program format to be successful with school course work.
“The team that’s been working on this and bringing those programs back into regular day schools have been crucial to us achieving this,” he said “The SST Lift teachers and the students that are in there and the staff have certainly gone above and beyond.”
Ferguson also credited the “grad coaches” and principals at the schools for their work in reaching the board’s graduation goal.
He said the goal now is to stay at that 90 per cent level.
“We plan to stick around at that 90 per cent and to keep seeing improvement.”
UCDSB Chair Jamie Schoular said the achievement would not have occurred “without the hard work of many people.”
The 90 per cent graduation rate has been a long-sought achievement by the English-Public board, but it was not the only bright spot during the annual report. EQAO testing has also seen its third year of year-over-year improvement in all categories.
Across all three categories (Math, Writing, and Reading) in Grades 3 and 6, along with the Grade 9 Math EQAO and Grade 10 Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test, the UCDSB saw improvements.
The percentage of students reaching at least 70 per cent on the EQAO assessment in Grade 3 math went from 46 to 61 per cent from 2022-23 to 2024-25. Grade 3 Writing improved from 53 to 64 per cent, while Reading improved from 63 to 71 per cent.
Grade 6 Math increased from 33 to 43 per cent, while Writing jumped from 75 to 83 per cent and Reading from 78 to 83 per cent.
Grade 9 Math EQAO scores improved from 34 to 45 per cent over the three year period, while Grade 10 OSSLT increased from 77 to 81 per cent in that same reporting period.
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