Declining math scores at Toronto’s public schools just don’t add up.

Following the release Wednesday of provincial standardized test scores, the Toronto District School Board is at a loss to explain why math results have, for the most part, dropped over four years. It’s a trend happening in other jurisdictions — and no one has really found the fix.

“It is a challenge to understand why we can’t seem to turn this trend around,” said TDSB Director John Malloy, after results were published by the Education Quality and Accountability Office, which assesses reading, writing and math skills in Grades 3, 6, 9 and 10. “The challenge, I believe, we are all facing in the (TDSB) and across the province, is that we’re trying to figure that question out.”

EQAO math results for 2018-19, for third and sixth graders, show public school boards in Toronto, Peel, Durham and Halton have in recent years seen their scores drop or stay flat. Meanwhile, the York Region board experienced a dip in Grade 3 results, but an uptick in Grade 6. However, all those boards scored above the provincial average, which has been trending downward.

The percentage of students across Ontario performing at or above the provincial standard in Grade 3 is 58, down from 63 per cent in 2015-16. Meanwhile, 48 per cent are meeting Grade 6 standards, having slipped from 50 per cent.

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The Ministry of Education is trying to reverse that trend with a new math curriculum for Grades 1 to 12, moving away from discovery math to a back-to-basics approach. It will be phased-in over four years, with the elementary curriculum to be released in the spring and implemented next fall.

“It is important that students graduate with the math and literacy skills they need to succeed in school, work and life,” said Alexandra Adamo, spokesperson for Education Minister Stephen Lecce. “That is why our government is strengthening the foundation in mathematics by getting back to basics in numeracy.”

The province’s new math strategy has committed $55 million for 2019-20 to support improved student math performance, including funding for additional support in mathematics to 62 elementary and 43 secondary schools in the TDSB. And, Ontario will also require new teachers pass a math test that assesses math skills and pedagogy — how to best teach math — with a score of 70 per cent in each. It will be developed by the EQAO, which is a provincial agency, and administered by the province’s faculties of education. It should be available by late winter or early spring.

At the TDSB, the largest board in Canada serving about 246,000 students in nearly 600 schools, Malloy said he and staff will continue to focus on math results. Sixty-one per cent of third graders and 53 per cent of sixth graders are meeting standards — down from 67 per cent and 55 per cent four years ago

“Though we are at above the provincial average, we need to do better and we are certainly implementing our math strategy,” he said. That includes focusing on schools that have the greatest challenges, providing coaching support to teachers and identifying gaps in those schools that need to be filled.

In Grade 9, TDSB results show 22 per cent are meeting standards in applied math, and 77 per cent in academic math — that’s below the provincial average, which is 44 per cent and 84 per cent, respectively. Malloy said low results in the applied stream are because the board has been successfully moving students into the academic program over the last five years. Currently, 19 per cent of the ninth graders are in applied, and the rest are in academic.

“It’s a very small number of students who are actually in that (applied) program,” he said. “Even though we wish to do better in our Grade 9 mathematics scores, we also know that we’re a part of a big transformational change that is having an impact in the short term.”

At the Toronto Catholic District School Board, which has also experienced a decline in elementary scores in recent years, 58 per cent of third graders and 44 per cent of sixth graders met standards. In Grade 9, 48 per cent in applied math and 83 per cent in academic math met standards — these scores have increased or remained flat in recent years.

Other EQAO results include the Peel District School Board, where 57 per cent in Grade 3, 49 per cent in Grade 6, 39 per cent in Grade 9 applied and 84 per cent in academic met or surpassed standards.

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In Durham District School Board, it was 63 per cent in Grade 3, 54 per cent in Grade 6, 47 per cent in Grade 9 applied and 84 per cent in academic.

In Halton District School Board, it was 67 per cent in Grade 3, 56 per cent in Grade 6, 55 per cent in Grade 9 applied math and 91 per cent in academic.

And in York Region District School Board, 69 per cent of students in Grade 3, 64 per cent in Grade 6, 45 per cent in Grade 9 applied math, and 90 per cent in academic math met or surpassed standards.