EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
Ontario’s education minister is launching an advisory body to look into the province’s standardized testing and student outcomes after the latest test scores for reading, writing and math showed “insufficient progress.”
The Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) issued the results of its standardized testing for reading, writing and math scores on Wednesday, with the government saying they indicate the “pace of improvement … has not been adequate.”
While the percentage of Grade 3 and 6 students who met the provincial standard in reading, writing and math increased in 2024-25 compared to the year prior, in some categories the increase was minimal.
The results show 64 per cent of Grade 3 students, 51 per cent of Grade 6 students and 58 per cent of Grade 9 students met the standard in math. That’s compared to 61 per cent, 50 per cent and 54 per cent, respectively, the year prior.
Seventy-four per cent of Grade 3 students met the provincial standard in reading, up from 71 per cent in 2023-24, and 65 per cent met the standard for writing, up slightly from 64 per cent the previous year.
For Grade 6 students, 86 per cent met the reading standard compared to 82 per cent the year before and 85 per cent met the provincial writing standard, up from 80 per cent in 2023-24.
“It is clear that student achievement is not improving fast enough, and this is not acceptable — it’s not acceptable to parents, and as minister of education, it’s not acceptable to me,” Calandra said at a press conference on Wednesday morning. “The results show that despite improvements as we continue to implement a ‘back to basics’ approach, there have been inadequate progress in reading, writing and especially math.”
