Comparison data is in for provincial literacy and math testing and the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board is tops in Southern Ontario.
The data also shows the board in the top 3 for all nine EQAO categories across the entire province.
Director of Education Paul Picard says it all goes back to a conversation he had with staff five years ago.
"I said to the senior staff, "Let's be number one", and they said, "You can't say that because the media will hold you to that", and, well, here we are. In terms of what some might perceive as the academic centres, Waterloo, London, we're superior."
Picard says he's looking forward to sharing the news.
"I'm going to meet with the principals and I'm going to say, "You've done this. The teachers have done this". It's pretty easy to articulate a vision, to operationalize it and bring it to fruition, that's where the hard work is and look what they've done."
He says this is a small part in the overall revival of Windsor-Essex.
"We can compete with anyone and we're showing that we can and it's not just us," says Picard. "Very often we hear, politically, the province stops at London and we're saying, student achievement wise, the province begins in Windsor is how we're putting that."
Last week, AM800 News reported the Catholic School Board was exceeding the provincial average in its EQAO test results.