What the TVDSB Doesn't Want You to Notice in Their Own Student Achievement Plan

The Thames Valley District School Board just published their 2025-2026 Student Achievement Plan. It’s 5 pages. It’s public. And the numbers inside should be setting off alarm bells for every parent in this district.

Despite only positive words concerning the plan (e.g., that it "includes 5 goals and 11 indicators to track student achievement in core academic skills, preparation for future success, engagement, and well-being") in an announcement that asks for your feedback (at https://www.tvdsb.ca/en/students/student-achievement-plan.aspx?_mid_=117789), this plan actually reports recent, dismal outcome data of TVDSB students.

Here’s what it actually says.

The Report Card on TVDSB

The board tracks itself against provincial averages. Here’s how that’s going:

Elementary Literacy — A Crisis in Grade 3

Only 56% of Grade 3 students can write at the provincial standard. That means nearly half of 8-year-olds in this district aren’t where they’re supposed to be. Reading isn’t much better at 67%. Both are well below the provincial average.

Math — A Coin Flip

Grade 6 math? 50% meeting standard. Grade 9 math? 52%. Your kid has roughly the same odds of meeting the math standard as winning a coin toss. And the province isn’t doing much better, which tells you this isn’t just a local problem — it’s a systemic failure in how math is being taught.

High School — Leaking Students

• 77% pass the literacy test on first attempt (province: 85%)

• Only 72% have 16 credits by end of Grade 10 (province: 80%)

• Five-year graduation rate: 83.5% (province: 89.5%)

• Just 18% of students participate in skilled trades and apprenticeship programs (province: 28%)

Kids Aren’t Showing Up

Half of all elementary students — Grades 1 through 8 — don’t hit 90% attendance. Let that sink in. Half.

Discipline Is Broken

The suspension rate is 5.83%, nearly double the provincial rate of 3.84%. Whatever they’re doing on school safety and classroom management, it’s not working.

Kids Know They’re Not Ready

Only 59% of students believe their education has prepared them for their next step. The kids themselves are telling us the system isn’t delivering.

What the Board Plans to Do About It

Their action plan boils down to:

• More screening and monitoring

• Training teachers on “culturally relevant and responsive” instruction

• Credit recovery and summer programs for struggling high schoolers

• An attendance dashboard (coming Fall 2026)

• Mental health modules for Grades 7, 8, and 10

• Restorative practices for discipline

What’s missing? Any mention of how reading is being taught. Any re-examination of math instruction methods. Any plan to get parents involved in academic interventions. Any accountability for families on attendance.

What Parents Should Be Most Concerned About

1. Your Third Grader Probably Can’t Write — and Nobody’s Telling You Why

56% is not a “we need to tweak a few things” number. It’s a system failure. Yet the plan never mentions phonics, explicit writing instruction, or knowledge-building curriculum. The fix is “responsive instruction” and “culturally relevant approaches.” Parents deserve to know exactly what method is being used to teach their child to read and write — and whether the board can defend it with evidence.

2. Half of Elementary Kids Are Chronically Absent — and the Solution Is a Computer Dashboard

Not an investigation into why families stopped sending kids. Not a plan to re-engage parents. Not accountability measures. A dashboard. Coming Fall 2026. By then, another cohort of kids will have lost another year of instruction. This is bureaucratic avoidance dressed up as a strategy.

3. The Discipline Numbers: Are Your Kids’ Classrooms Being Disrupted?

TVDSB principals and teachers may, more than other boards, insist on non-violent behaviour: this may be part of the reason why the board’s suspension rate is almost twice as high as the provincial average. But when suspension rates are this high, we can also question whether TVDSB schools are more dangerous and chaotic than elsewhere, or whether the board is suspending kids for things other boards handle differently. Either way, the plan’s answer — “restorative practices” and “bias-aware approaches” — is the same philosophy that coincided with these numbers getting worse. Parents should be asking: are disruptive students being removed so others can learn, or is classroom control being sacrificed to keep suspension numbers down?

4. The Skilled Trades Pipeline Is Barely Functioning

18% participation in trades and apprenticeship programs vs. 28% provincially. That’s thousands of kids being funneled toward university — or toward nothing — when a viable, debt-free career path exists. The board talks a good game on “pathways” but the numbers say they’re not delivering. If your kid isn’t university-bound, this gap should make you angry.

5. Nobody Is Going to Tell You If Your Kid Is Falling Behind

The plan is full of internal monitoring, screening, and data dashboards — for administrators and teachers. But there’s no stated mechanism for proactively informing parents when their child is flagged, what interventions are being tried, or what options the family has. You’re expected to trust the system and wait for the report card. By then, it’s often too late.

The Bottom Line

The TVDSB’s own document shows a district where half of young kids can’t write at standard, half don’t attend regularly, math is a coin flip, and the graduation pipeline is leaking students at every checkpoint. The response is heavy on process, light on substance, and silent on the questions parents actually want answered.

TVDSB has asked for comments at https://www.tvdsb.ca/en/students/student-achievement-plan.aspx?_mid_=117789 Though the surveys says, on its first page, that "To protect the safety and well-being of students, staff, families, and community members, any messages containing discriminatory, hate-based, or other harmful language will not be included in reporting ", it's possible they may listen: Consider making your voice heard.

The document is public. The numbers are theirs. Share it with other parents. Ask your principal about it. If elected as your trustee, this will my top priority. Because the plan makes one thing clear: nobody’s going to sound the alarm for you.

Source: Concerned Parents Association of London and Area (CPAL)