Ontario’s math & literacy scores dropping

Ontario’s Education Accountability Office says “persistently low” English and math test rates for the province’s high school students suggest the province should review those courses.

Provincial test results released today show that half of the high school students in applied math are not meeting the provincial standard. The EQAO also says grade 10 literacy test scores have decreased each year for the past five years.

“We need to look at the time the teachers are spending on literacy, the time they are spending on math, the time they are spending on other subjects, and see if that’s something that we need to rebalance. I think it’s important to if we look at the results over the past five years there has been a worrisome drop in math. I will agree with that if you look at from the beginning of EQAO to current you will find that we improved and then we dropped off over the last five years,” says Education Minister Liz Sandals.

At the elementary level, EQAO points out that the percentage of grade 3 and 6 students who met the provincial standard for math has dropped consistently since 2010.