Math scores for elementary students in Ontario continue to decline, as the provincial government continues to promote its new plan to address the problem.
According to the Education Quality and Accountability Office, test scores for Grade 3 students is down five per cent from 2016, to 58 per cent meeting the standard.
For Grade 6, it's 48 per cent, which is two per cent lower.
"The math results are disappointing," education minister Stephen Lecce said in response to the results.
The scores come a day after Lecce confirmed that all new teachers will have to score at least 70 per cent on test based on elementary and high school math starting next year.
"This government believes in creating performance metrics," he said. "I just want educators to know the results today in my opinion, as I expressed yesterday, are not an admission on their capacities or on their abilities, not at all."
"It is a recognition that the way we were teaching was not working."
As for high school, there's a significant gap between applied classes and academic ones.
For applied classes, about 44 per cent meet the standard, but it jumps to 84 per cent in academic.
Math tutor Vanessa Vakharian said perhaps a new direction is needed for students at the younger level.
She points out that even though more Grade 3 and Grade 6 math scores are falling short of the B benchmark than in years past, the data suggests students still have a good grasp of the core concepts.
"It's 2019 and we need analytical skills and innovative skills and critical thinking skills, that we simply did not need 30 years ago," Vakharian said, who also holds a Masters in Math Education.
She argues the issue isn't within the current math curriculum.
"I think there has been a bit of a disconnect between what's in the curriculum and how it's being carried out and a lot of that simply has to do with resources for teachers and helping teachers who have been in the system for a long time, get acclimated to teaching in this new way," she said.