The number of elementary students in Ontario who are meeting the provincial standard in math is declining.
Results of standardized tests from the last school year were released today by the Education Quality and Accountability Office.
For Grade 3 students, 58 per cent met the standard, which is five percentage points lower than three years ago.
Fewer than half of Grade 6 students -- 48 per cent -- met the standard, which is two percentage points lower than three years ago.
The EQAO says research has shown that for students in those grades, their basic math skills are stronger than their ability to apply those skills to a problem.
The agency also says that the Grade 9 results are relatively consistent, but there is a persistent gap between students in the applied and academic courses -- 44 per cent and 84 per cent of them met the standard, respectively.
Literacy results were also fairly consistent with the past several years, except for a decline in the number of Grade 3 students who met the provincial writing standard.
