Making the grade

Students in this province performing close to the Canadian average in school

Prince Edward Island students are performing close to the Canadian average in reading, math and science.

New assessment results show how well education systems around the world are preparing students for higher education and the workforce by assessing the achievement of 15 year-olds in reading, math and science.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results released Tuesday indicate that Canadian students remain among the top 10 performers in the world. Of the 79 countries and economies that participated in PISA 2018, Canada ranked fourth in reading, 10th in mathematics and sixth in science.

Island students, for the most part, appear to be holding their own.

In reading, which was the major domain, P.E.I. scores were statistically similar to all provinces except Alberta and Ontario, which were higher.

In math, the provincial scores here were statistically similar to all provinces except Quebec,

Ontario and Alberta, which were higher.

In science, P.E.I. scores were statistically similar to most provinces except Alberta and Ontario, which were higher.

“PISA tells us that our education system is working, based on the fact that P.E.I. student performance is similar to other provinces and Canada which is clearly one of the top performing countries in the world,” said Education and Lifelong Learning Minister Brad Trivers.

“Comparing P.E.I. directly with results from other countries, we find, for example, that in math our students are on par with countries like Finland, Germany, and the United Kingdom.”

Like Canada, the Island saw a slight decline in performance since 2015. However, unlike Canada, P.E.I. scores are up in each domain since 2009 and 2012, whereas Canadian scores were down in all three domains of reading, math and science.

On the down side, P.E.I. was found to be one of the less equitable provinces measured by the gap that exists between students with the highest and those with the lowest levels of performance, which is considered an important indicator of the equity of education outcomes.

For Canada overall, those in the highest decile scored 259 points higher in reading than those in the lowest decile, which is similar to the gap across OECD countries. At the provincial level, the smallest gaps (greater equity) are found in Quebec and Saskatchewan, while the largest gaps (less equity) can be observed in P.E.I., New Brunswick, and British Columbia.

Students are exempted from writing PISA because of physical and intellectual disabilities and limited language proficiency. The number of students exempted from the assessment in P.E.I. dropped by almost half in 2018, down from 14.3 perc ent in 2015 to 7.7 per cent in 2018.

PISA is conducted every three years. It was administered in Island schools in April and May of 2018 to students born in 2002. A random sample was selected by PISA to participate in the twohour computer-based test.

The Canadian report can be found at www.pisacan.ca