Skip to main content

“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.” ~~ John G. Diefenbaker

FRASER INSTITUTE -- International math test scores decline nationwide over recent 15-year period

 

Students in every province recorded declining results in international math tests from 2003 to 2018, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan, Canadian public policy think-tank.

“Mathematics holds a position of strategic importance in the school curriculum, especially in our increasingly digital world, which makes these signs of declining math performance by Canadian students all the more worrisome,” said Derek Allison, professor Emeritus at the University of Western Ontario, a Fraser Institute senior fellow and co-author of Math Performance in Canada.

Conducted every three years, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)is the most extensive and widely accepted measure of academic proficiency among lower secondary school students around the world. Analyzing PISA data over the most recent 15-year period, the study finds that Canada overall fell from fifth highest score among the 37 participant countries in 2003 to 12th place among the 78 participating jurisdictions in the most recent 2018 assessment.

Crucially, PISA scores declined in every province over that period. Declines were steepest in Manitoba with a decrease of 8.7 per cent, followed by Alberta (6.9per cent), and British Columbia (6.3per cent), and least severe in Prince Edward Island (2.6per cent) and Ontario (3.2per cent), with only a small non-statistically significant drop in Quebec’s scores (0.7per cent).

The study also reviews trends in the provinces’ own measures of math performance against their own curriculum standards, as opposed to broader assessments used to measure performance internationally. And even in the province’s own assessments, math scores have declined.

“By almost every measure, math scores are declining across the country,” said Vincent Geloso, a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute and co-author of the study.

“Policymakers and educators need to understand the severity of these declining math results and should seriously consider ways to reverse the trend.”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nurses Take Job Action After Years of NDP Neglect

Image Credit:  BC Nurses Union BC nurses have reached a breaking point after years of unsafe conditions, rising violence in the workplace and a government that wouldn’t listen. Now they are on the picket line fighting to be heard. Last week, nurses began job action with a 72-hour strike notice, refusing non-essential overtime and stepping back from non-nursing duties. As of Tuesday, they have escalated to picket lines for the first time in decades. This moment was avoidable. It is the result of years of unanswered concerns from the frontline workers who keep our hospitals running. Nurses have been raising the same concerns for years: unsafe staffing levels, rising violence on the job, and a workload no single person should have to carry. None of it is new, and none of it should have taken a strike vote to get the government's attention. "Nurses are exercising their legal right to job action, but it shouldn’t have had to come to this," said Kiel Giddens, MLA for...
Post a Comment
Read more

British Columbians Still Don’t Know Who’s Paying for NDP’s BC Hydro Deal

The NDP is making billion-dollar promises with BC Hydro, but British Columbians still don’t know who will pay the bill. Last week’s memorandum of understanding isn’t what the federal government and the NDP are making it out to be. It’s an admission that the NDP failed to make the long-term investments needed to keep B.C. powered. Now British Columbians have serious questions about the cost and whether BC Hydro ratepayers will end up paying the price. David L. Williams, MLA for Salmon Arm-Shuswap and Shadow Minister for BC Hydro and Electrical Energy Development , said British Columbians deserve clear answers about the full implications of the Canada–British Columbia Cooperative Prosperity Agreement. “British Columbians deserve the full truth,” said Mr. Williams. “This multi-billion-dollar announcement does not answer who pays for cost overruns, who pays for new generation, who carries the risk if industrial customers do not materialize, or whether ratepayers will be forced ...
Post a Comment
Read more

NDP Government Blames Everyone but Themselves

The federal government has announced new measures to support British Columbia's forestry sector, including $65 million in funding for projects across the province. While any support is welcome, it falls far short of the level of assistance other provinces have secured for key industries. Conservative Forests Critic Ward Stamer says the NDP government needs to take responsibility for its mismanagement of B.C.’s forest industry instead of trying to pass on the blame. Despite promising to create more jobs in the forest sector, the NDP government has overseen the loss of thousands of forestry jobs and 21 mill closures which have devastated communities. “If Premier Eby spent more time addressing the regulatory issues impacting the forestry sector than he did complaining about the federal government, we would not be in the position we are now,” said Stamer. “And instead of trying to place the blame for mill closures on Donald Trump, Minister of Forests Ravi Parmar should t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Labels

Show more