Area school boards are encouraged by the long-term results of Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) testing, though public schools didn't fare quite as well in the short-term.
From the 2024-2025 school year to the 2025-2026 school year, results for students within the Lambton-Kent District School Board (LKDSB) dropped slightly.
For Grade 3 students, math scores went from 58 per cent at or above the provincial standard to 55 per cent, reading scores dropped from 70 per cent to 65 per cent, and writing scores went from 55 per cent to 53 per cent.
For Grade 6 students, math dropped from 41 per cent to 38 per cent, reading went from 79 per cent to 76 per cent, while writing scores stayed at 77 per cent.
Grade 9 math results remained at 44 per cent at or above the provincial standard, with more students sitting in the Level 2 and Level 3 achievement range than in years past.
The school board has noted that LKDSB students have shown steady improvement since Ontario schools switched to online assessments in 2021-2022. Looking at the long range data, seven of the eight assessment areas have remained at or above the provincial standard.
Mathematics and writing have improved across all grade levels, with Grade 9 math scores improving 10 percentage points in five years.
Grade 6 reading is the trouble spot, declining three per cent over time.
"We know that a single year of data represents only one snapshot in time," said LKDSB Superintendent of Education Ben Hazzard. "When we examine results over a longer period, we see encouraging evidence that our students are making progress and that the investments our schools have made in literacy, numeracy, and student success are having a positive impact."
The school board added that the area's participation rates continue to exceed provincial averages showing a truer reflection of learning growth and achievement in Sarnia-Lambton and Chatham-Kent. Participation rates for all tested grades in the LKDSB were in the mid-to-high 90s.
Results were a little more positive for the area's Catholic schools.
The St. Clair Catholic District School Board reports that students maintained or improved in seven of the eight assessment categories and that results in six of the eight categories met or exceeded provincial standards.
Grade 3 students did particularly well in mathematics with 75 per cent at or above the standard for the 2025-2026 school year. That's an improvement of eight per cent over the 2024-2025 school year.
Grade 3 reading was up from 77 per cent to 79 per cent, while writing went from 65 per cent to 70 per cent.
Results were up across the board for Grade 6 testing as well. In math, it went from 45 per cent to 50 per cent. Reading improved from 85 per cent to 86 per cent. Writing went from 84 per cent to 87 per cent.
Grade 9 math results were down slightly, going from 58 per cent to 57 per cent.
