There are mixed statistics in the latest reading, writing and math scores from the Education Quality and Accountability Office.
The results for the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board show the number of students in Grade 3 and 6 who met the EQAO standard in reading, writing and math were above the provincial average.
The number of Grade 9 math students and Grade 10 literacy students who met the EQAO standard also exceeded the provincial average.
The only concern among the stats for the separate school board is that the math scores dropped compared to previous EQAO tests.
“That is somewhat concerning,” says board chair Barb Holland. “But if you look at most of the trend data for the last four years, we’ve been on a consistently upward trajectory, so we fully expected that at some point, there might be some anomalies and year-to-year fluctuations.”
The EQAO results for the Greater Essex County District School Board also show math is a concern.
The number of students meeting the provincial standard in Grades 3 and 6 math is down on average between five and seven per cent over the last five years.
There was no change in the number of Grade 3 and 6 students and the number of Grade 9 academic math students who met the provincial standard.
But the number of Grade 9 students who met the standard in applied math jumped ten per cent.
The EQAO stats also show an improvement in reading and writing scores for Grade 3 and 6 students while the results for the Grade 10 literacy test remained stable.
Officials from both school boards are encouraging parents to do math at home, to help their children succeed.
The province has also issued a 'parent's guide to the fundamentals of math' in an attempt to get parents and their children to have fun with numbers.
