The Chignecto-Central Regional School Board is boasting improved provincial math exam scores over last year, while students in other school boards are scoring poorly.

The provincial average is 52 per cent. Recently, all but one Grade 12 math student at the Shelburne High School ended up failing the provincial exam. The class average was 24 per cent.

And, according to the provincial Department of Education, 34 per cent of students in the Tri-County Regional School Board who took the Grade 12 math exam passed in the 2010-11 school year.

Four years ago, schools in the Chignecto-Central Regional School Board scored a dismal 26 per cent pass rate when it came to the provincial Grade 12 math exam.

Last year, they managed a 66 per cent pass rate — a significant jump.

Darlene MacKeen-Hudson, the board's math co-ordinator, said one of the main things the board started doing was holding board-wide tests in Grade 10, then analyzing the results to find out where students needed help.

"We really want to see how they perform and how the pull together all the concepts they've learned in math. This exam is at the end of Grade 10 but it's really speaking to what they've learned all the way through their education."

Thomas Little said he was failing Grade 10 math last year at the Cobequid Educational Centre in Truro. This year he said he's improved a lot.

"It's a fresh start, new year, it feels great actually."

His teacher, Jennifer Courish, also meets with other math teachers in the board to give and get feedback and share teaching approaches that work.

Last June, the school had a 95 per cent pass rate.

"The better I understand the topic, the better they'll understand the topic," Courish said.

Other boards are starting to implement the same approach to try to boost their sagging their math scores.