MONTREAL – Grade 8 students in Quebec led the pack in mathematics in a national test of nearly 32,000 students across Canada.
But their results in reading and science will likely come under scrutiny in Quebec because they were below the Canadian mean score, unlike the last pan-Canadian assessment where they emerged at or near the top in those subjects.
The results, to be unveiled today, come from the second national assessment of high school students administered by the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada in 2010.
In the first national test in 2007, Quebec 13-year-olds came out on top in mathematics and reading, and were second, behind Alberta students, in science.
In the latest assessment, the reading results of Grade 8 Quebec students fell below the Canadian mean score. While the Quebec reading scores aren’t considered bad overall in comparison with the rest of Canada, they do represent a drop that is statistically significant compared to the 2007 test.
Quebec students’ mean score in science was significantly lower than that of Canadian students overall, the report said. However, the results suggest there’s not much difference between the top and bottom scores. Alberta had the highest result in science and the Yukon had the lowest.
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The Pan-Canadian Assessment Program allows for comparing results over time in math, science and reading, the report said. The tests are administered every three years. One of those core subjects is the major focus in each assessment. The data helps provinces and territories see how their education system’s performance may have changed over time, the report added. The next test will be conducted in 2013.
The major focus of the 2010 assessment was math, with science and reading the minor domains.
The mean scores of Quebec and Ontario students in math were “significantly higher than those of Canadian students overall,” the report said.
In addition to having the best scores in math, Quebec had the largest portion of students who were able to succeed at the more difficult levels of the test.
The assessment contained four levels of performance, with level 2 the expected level for Grade 8 students.
More than 90 per cent of Canadian students in Grade 8 are achieving at or above that level, the report said.
The higher levels were 3 and 4, which involved questions that were more difficult and cognitively demanding. Quebec students stood out for their performance at those levels.
Quebec students fared well in problem-solving in the math assessment.
The report also noted their mean scores in math were significantly higher than Canadian students overall in numbers and operations, geometry and measurement and in data management and probability.
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