Elementary schoolkids continue to struggle with math, with the latest round of standardized test results showing they remain on the decline for many boards.

The results, released Wednesday by the Education Quality and Accountability Office (or EQAO), are incomplete for this year because of a work-to-rule by public elementary teachers last spring. Only Catholic teachers’ were administering the tests to students in Grades 3 and 6 in reading, writing and math.

But, as in recent years, math scores continue to decline. In the Toronto Catholic District School Board over the past five years, Grade 3 results have dropped from 67 to 63 per cent of students reaching provincial expectations, and from 57 to 52 per cent of Grade 6 students.

“We are putting a lot of time and effort and money into improving those scores,” said Dan Koenig, the board’s superintendent of curriculum and accountability. “I’m hoping this is an implementation dip,” before the new measures have an impact, he added.

The board has moved from pulling teachers out of schools for training to providing it on-site, after each school “identifies, based on their data, what the urgent critical learning need is,” he said. “And a huge percentage (of schools) are using math as that student learning need. They have days at their disposal to work with staff and analyze the data, right at the school level.”

Principals are also receiving professional development to help teachers, and the board is sending out the message to teachers that math instruction must be a balance between problem-solving and drills to learn the basics, and they must add variety to their teaching methods.

In reading and writing, student scores continue to climb in the Toronto Catholic board.

Percentage of students meeting provincial standards in boards across Greater Toronto:

Halton Catholic:

Grade 3: reading 82, writing 86, math 78

Grade 6: reading 87, writing 88, math 71

York Catholic:

Grade 3: reading 75, writing 84, math 69

Grade 6: reading 86, writing 89, math 61

Durham Catholic:

Grade 3: reading 71, writing 77, math 64

Grade 6: reading 83, writing 82, math 59

Dufferin-Peel:

Grade 3: reading 71, writing 76, math 64

Grade 6: reading 81, writing 82, math 53

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The job action by the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario saw the annual tests cancelled for almost 183,000 students.

It was the first time in the history of the EQAO that tests were not fully administered.

In response, the EQAO has not published province-wide data, only that for individual boards and schools.