More than half of tested students in the Waterloo Region District School Board have failed to meet the provincial standard in mathematics – part of a downward trend that has continued over the last three years.

The Education, Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) results also show these students scoring below the provincial average.

Half of Grade 6 students in Ontario met the standard, whereas only 46 per cent of those in Waterloo Region’s public board made the grade.

But these students aren’t alone. The decline in math scores is following a province-wide trend.

There is good news too. The school board says there was a small increase in reading scores at the Grade 3 level, as well as an improvement in reading and writing in Grade 6. However, WRDSB students are still testing below the provincial average.

Grade 10 students met the provincial standard on the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test, with 81 per cent successfully completing the test.

The school board says it is taking action and plans to hire two experts to analyze the EQAO data and help develop ways to improve test scores that will focus on mathematics.

John Bryant, director of education for the school board, said he was surprised by the results.

“I do know we have to do better and that we can do better,” Bryant said. "We are going to take all the data and we're going to analyze it."

One expert says parents and teachers should pay attention to the results of this standardized testing, but the sky isn’t falling.

"I wonder whether there is maybe a little bit of a disconnect between what EQAO is assessing and what is actually being taught in the classrooms," said Ian VanderBurgh, a professor at the University of Waterloo’s Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing.

“Standardized testing, EQAO and other kinds, captures what happened in classrooms on that one day on which testing was done … But it doesn't tell the whole story of what's going on."

The Waterloo Catholic District School Board fared better in the EQAO testing. Fifty-two per cent of its Grade 6 students met the math standard, which is two per cent above the provincial average.

Catholic Grade 3 students also exceeded the provincial average by four per cent in reading, three per cent in writing and five per cent in math.

With reporting by Allison Tanner