A monitoring report was given for math at Monday's board meeting for the Chinook School Division, and Math Coordinator Ed Varjassy was happy overall with the results.

Students in grades 3, 6, and 9 were assessed in June with the Vancouver Islandnet Math Assessment, and 78 per cent of those students met or exceeded expectations.

That's the highest percentage yet, and a bump of 1.6 per cent from the previous year.

"I am fairly pleased with where we're at," Varjassy said. "We are as high as we've been ever in terms of our scores in math, with our assessment, we're at 78 per cent. That's up a bit from last year. And significant since 2011 (when the assessments began). I think we're trending in the right direction, at least with where we're at."

Grade 3s performed the best of the lot, with 88.7 per cent of students meeting or exceeding expectations - a 1.7-per-cent increase from the previous spring. They had an increase of 45 per cent since 2011 (the first year was like a "shock to the system" according to Varjassy).

There was an increase of .8 per cent with Grade 6s, bringing their rate of students meetings or exceeding to 79.7 per cent. That's 27.9 per cent higher than in 2011.

And Grade 9s fare the worst from year to year, but still had an improvement of 1.7 per cent since 2017, and were up 45 per cent since 2011.

Varjassy said it can be hard for Grade 9s to want to perform their best when there isn't a "visible reward for the student for doing their best."

During the board meeting, there was talk about Grade 9s having a lot else going on in their lives.

But Varjassy said the assessment - despite it being a single event in a year - gives a pretty-accurate depiction of where students are at.

"I feel good about our assessment in that it does reflect a fairly-accurate picture. If we have a strong student, they're a strong student on that assessment. Likewise, if they're struggling, they struggle on that assessment. It's just maybe the level doesn't quite rise to the same heights or those sorts of things with that assessment."

"We see the trends, we're very consistent year to year in terms of what we're seeing with it," he added. "That says a lot I think. We've been doing it since 2011, and getting similar results that are trending upwards."