Sixth-graders in middle schools fare worse on Ontario's standardized literacy and numeracy testing than peers who haven't made that switch, according to a recent report, reviving debates on the merits of separating tweens into intermediate schools.

In "Signposts of Success: Evaluating Ontario's Elementary Schools," education researcher David R. Johnson analyzed the results of the province's EQAO standardized testing of Grade 3 and Grade 6 students' skills in reading, writing and mathematics. In this most recent edition of the ongoing C.D. Howe Institute report series, released in late August, he dug into a three-year period ending with the 2023-2024 school year.

A key finding was that Grade 6 students newly enrolled in middle school "systematically do worse" in their EQAO tests than pe

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