Students at Ottawa’s two English language school boards performed slightly better than the province-wide average when it comes to standardized math tests, but they’re not immune to the downward trend seen across Ontario.
Premier Doug Ford and Education Minister Lisa Thompson expressed shock at the fact that only 49% of Grade 6 students across Ontario met the provincial standard for math in the 2017-18 school year, and promised there would be changes to the curriculum.
Locally, the numbers are a bit better, but not by much.
51% of Grade 6 students at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board met the provincial standard for math. 53% of Grade 6 catholic students also made the grade.
But those numbers are still down compared to previous results. In 2009-10, 63% of OCDSB Grade 6ers met the standard, while 67% of catholic kids did.
In August, Thompson blamed the previous Liberal government’s so-called “discovery math” curriculum for the steady decline in math scores and promised school children will get “back to the basics” when it comes to the third of the three Rs.
