Marian Reimer-Friesen’s career in education spans more than 30 years with Ontario’s District School Board of Niagara (DSBN). She holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) with distinction in Concurrent Child Studies, a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) at the Primary and Junior Level, and a Master of Education (M.Ed.) in Curriculum Studies from Brock University. She has also obtained additional certifications in Principal’s Qualifications, Special Education, and Supervisory Officer’s Qualifications from Brock. She is a recipient of the Governor General’s Excellence in Teaching Canadian History Award and the Learning Disabilities Association’s Teaching Excellence Award.
Marian describes her career as “accidental,” one which did not follow a planned roadmap, but rather being in the right place at the right time, with dedicated mentors to lead the way. Following invaluable experience as an elementary school teacher, she was given the unexpected opportunity to become a vice-principal, then principal, area superintendent, and later curriculum superintendent with the DSBN. Marian expresses her passion for supporting at-risk students and describes a research partnership with Parrett and Budge, authors of Transforming High Poverty Schools into High Performing Schools, which led her to explore ways of strengthening assessment for learning and formative assessment practices.
She describes her work as a curriculum superintendent, focusing on supporting educators in implementing new provincial curricula. She also shares her experiences working with the Indigenous team at DSBN, where the team expanded from one member to a larger group supporting various aspects of Indigenous education, including curriculum and student well-being.
Marian also describes her work on the DSBN’s Digital Math and Language Mid-Year Assessment Project. The initiative began with mid-year assessments for Grades 3 and 6 to provide teachers with earlier data to inform instructional support. Following the digitization of the Education Quality and Accountability Office’s (EQAO) provincial assessments after the pandemic, the School Board initiated an assessment modernization project in which the original in-house, paper-based assessments for Grades 3 and 6 were transitioned to Vretta’s online platform.
The assessment system uses a simplified scoring approach focusing on “Not Yet,” “Almost,” and “Got It” levels, rather than the traditional four-level provincial system. Although there is a mix of constructed-response and selected-response questions, most are multiple-choice to mirror the EQAO assessments. The platform called Vault, is a learning and assessment tool for students in Grades 3, 6, and 9 and is fully aligned with the Ontario Curriculum. It combines responses from both machine-scored and teacher-evaluated constructed-responses to provide detailed reports by question, error type, skill, and student, supporting instructional planning.
Marian expresses strong satisfaction with the platform, whose purpose is to help teachers understand students’ learning needs for instructional and intervention purposes, rather than for accountability reporting.
Marian values large-scale assessment when it is used responsibly to monitor trends, identify inequities, and guide instructional support – not to rank schools or judge educators without context.
Reflecting on her career, Marian says she was initially humbled by her role as an area superintendent. As an experienced school administrator, she had a wealth of knowledge and experience to draw on in her new role. However, as a new superintendent she faced significant challenges but rose to the occasion and became a successful Board leader. She is particularly proud of her work in supporting at-risk students and high-poverty schools, as well as bringing schools together to improve instruction, which ultimately was reflected in their EQAO provincial assessment results.
Since retiring from DSBN in January, 2026, Marian has continued to undertake project work with the DSBN, teaches at Brock University, and serves as a consultant to Vretta. Her work with the EdTech company involves promoting the Vault assessment platform and highlighting how it effectively supported instructional decision-making, resource allocation, and professional development in her previous role.
She is also very interested in providing pedagogical guidance to schools and school boards and is available to help schools and jurisdictions analyze underperformance, identify overlooked opportunities, and develop targeted improvement strategies. She refers to herself as a “curious ally.” She believes that all students and schools can succeed; it just takes the “right” approach. She says that she enjoys a good puzzle; if schools are underperforming, the challenge is to figure out why and then craft an effective improvement strategy. She believes she brings a fresh set of eyes to supporting students and teachers and, in her words, maintains, “There is no puzzle that can’t be solved.”
Away from her professional responsibilities, Marian enjoys spending time with family, reading, and travelling with her husband. Since retiring, she has also taken up sewing and baking with her 90-year-old mother. Please feel free to reach out to her at: marian.reimerfriesen@vretta.com.
