Making the grade

Provincial assessments show Grade 3 students continue downward trend

More than half of tested Grade 3 English students don’t meet expectations for writing, according to the latest provincial assessment results released Wednesday.

Those results show 48 per cent of Grade 3 English students met expectations in writing, continuing a downward trend for that age group. Tammy Hubley-Little, director of leadership and learning, said the reading trends for Grade 3 students were fairly steady.

“Overall we want to support the students who are under performing, but we are seeing that the students in Grade 3, with their writing, that the trends are concerning to us,” she said. Those Grade 3 English writing results were some of the lowest of the 2017 assessments and were down from 51 per cent in 2016.

Grade 3 French immersion saw 49 per cent of students meet expectations, which was a decrease from 68 per cent last year.

The Grade 6 reading and writing results also dropped with 64 per cent of students meeting expectations in both categories. That’s down from 82 per cent in 2016 for both.

Most of the other results saw little change from last year, but there was improvement among Grade 11 arts and business math students with 69 per cent meeting expectations compared to 60 per cent last year. Workplace math results for Grade 11 students stayed the same as last year at 47 per cent. Grade 5 French immersion writing results were also up with 59 per cent meeting expectations compared to 39 per cent in 2016.

Students wrote the assessment tests in the last school year and schools have had the results since September.

Hubley-Little said efforts to help students will include a new writing program across the education system, but there will also be targeted efforts at the school level.

With the results, schools have identified things they need to put in place to address student needs and coaches can work with individual teachers as needed, Hubley-Little said.

“It’s a multi-layered approach to responding to the students’ needs, not only as a system, but also right down to the individual student level.”

In response to the results, Education Minister Jordan Brown said comparing one year to the next doesn’t compare “apples to apples.”

The idea is that identifying areas where resources can be allocated can change the outcomes for students as they move through the education system, Brown said.

“At its kind of most base level you have to look at the individual cohort that’s there and what their strengths and weaknesses are.”

Brown said the assessment results aren’t intended to pit one class or cohort against another.

“They are intended to ensure that those resources are in place and that this consistent program of assessment is being utilized to result in the best outcomes that we can possibly arrive at for our children,” he said.