Province Improving Accountability and Transparency in Ontario Schools

To ensure better futures for our students, The Better Schools and Outcomes Act will focus on developing the fundamental skills required for modern workforces, while increasing accountability and transparency requirements for schools.

Currently, school boards set their own education priorities, resulting in differences across the education system. For example, there are some schools consistently underperforming in EQAO data, including declining reading, writing and math scores. Moreover, it takes on average five to 10 years to build a standard school in Ontario and it can take more than 100 days to certify internationally educated teachers.

If passed, The Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act would help students and families by:

• Improving accountability and transparency by allowing the Minister of Education to set priorities in important areas on student achievement, like reading and math, and requiring school boards to update parents on progress
• Requiring school boards to publicly post a multi-year Board Improvement Plan that reflects the minister’s priorities for student achievement, creating authority to deploy personnel to support school boards when needed, along with greater oversight over provincially funded tax dollars
• Ensuring new teachers and educators have the skills they need to teach students effectively in math, reading and literacy
• Directing school boards to increase engagement and reporting to parents on student achievement and ensuring parents have easy access to the information they need to meaningfully engage with their children’s education and success
• Building schools faster and implementing measures to utilize current school spaces, ensuring Ontario is getting more classrooms into communities who need them
• Strengthening the requirement for school boards to have a code of conduct for boards of trustees, creating a neutral dispute resolution process and authority to standardize and mandate training requirements for school board leadership
• Building on our progress to establish a leading system of student safety and educator oversight, furthering measures to expedite disciplinary decisions for educators convicted of a criminal offense
• Expanding eligibility for therapy counselling for student victims of sexual abuse through the Ontario College of Teachers
• Providing for more consistent approaches to student learning and well-being, including on student mental health
• Improving processes at the Ontario College of Teachers and College of Early Childhood Educators to enable them to operate more efficiently, including more consistent disciplinary processes.