Half of Grade 10 B.C. Students Failing to Meet Provincial Math Standards

High school students head to school buses after school in this file photo. Geoff Robins/AFP via Getty Images

One of every two Grade 10 public school students in B.C. failed to meet proficiency standards in math during the 2021/22 school year, according to a new report.

Proficiency isn’t the only element to decline, however. Participation rates in the province-wide assessments have also “declined significantly,” said the report from the Fraser Institute.

Only 77.7 percent of students participated in the testing in the 2021/2022 school year and of those who took the test, just 48.2 percent met the provincial standard. That compares to 100 percent participation in the 2015/2016 school year with a 62.4 percent success rate in meeting the provincial standard.

“Historically, B.C. led the country in standardized testing, but major changes have essentially dismantled province-wide testing for high school students, and unfortunately, student achievement has declined,” Fraser Institute associate director of education policy Paige MacPherson said in a press release.

“Ironically, the B.C. government calls the new student assessments ‘mandatory,’ but declining student participation rates show schools are not upholding this requirement.”

Participation in the literacy portion of the testing was slightly higher at 82.9 percent, but still well below the 100 percent participation rate in 2015/2016. Proficiency also dropped from 80.5 percent to 76.4 percent.

The report noted that while the testing has changed due to a provincial government shift from math and English exams to numeracy and literacy assessments, they are both capable of demonstrating how academically proficient Grade 10 students are in both core subjects.

The report found that independent schools in the province had higher shares of proficient students in both math and literacy.

Grade 10 students at independent schools also saw a dip in their math scores, but they still scored significantly higher than their public school peers. In the 2021/2022 school year, 65.2 percent of independent school students were considered proficient in math, a dip of 12.3 percent compared to the 77.6 percent rating in 2015/2016.

In literacy, however, independent students modestly improved their scores from 87.2 percent to 89.7 percent proficiency.

Participation ‘Essential’

The report noted the importance of enforcing participation in province-wide testing so that school administrators and teachers can better understand how B.C. students and schools are doing academically.

“B.C. student performance is declining, as evidenced by weakening performance on international tests and provincial assessments, in parallel with the dismantling of the province’s formerly strong system of testing,” Ms. MacPherson said. “Returning to rigorous province-wide testing is essential to getting B.C.’s education system back on track.”

B.C. students aren’t alone when it comes to plummeting test scores. The results of the Programme for International Student Assessment—better known as the PISA test—revealed that Canadian students’ math scores dropped 15 points between 2018 and 2022.

Only 12 percent of Canadian students ranked as high math achievers on the 2022 test, scoring at Level 5 or 6, while 78 percent of Canadian students attained at least Level 2 baseline proficiency.

Only 14 percent of Canadian students scored at Level 5 or higher in reading, while 82 percent scored a Level 2 or higher in reading.

Compared to 2012, the number of students scoring below Level 2 increased by seven percentage points in both math and reading comprehension.

Eighty-one countries participated in the 2022 PISA testing and, while Canada scored among the top 10 countries for both subjects, the drastic dip in scores is a source of concern for some educators.

The consistent decline, particularly in math, was at least partly caused by school shutdowns and out-of-class learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Louis Volante, a professor of education governance at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont.

“Governments anticipated there would be a drop in test scores due to COVID-19 disruption. But few would have predicted such significant learning losses,” Mr. Volante wrote in an op-ed on The Conversation. “Since PISA was first administered in 2000, Canada has never experienced a drop of 15 score points in any area as has happened this year.”

University of Winnipeg math professor Anna Stokke pointed out that while COVID-19 impacted learning, the trend of waning proficiency in math started well before the pandemic.

“In particular, Manitoba has fallen 58 points since 2003. Alberta 45 points,” she said in a Dec. 5 social media post.

Ms. Stokke pointed to the way math is being taught in the classroom as a problem as traditional methods are abandoned, citing a lack of proper professional development (PD) for teachers.

The key to students excelling in math is simple, Ms. Stokke said. It comes down to “explicit instruction” and a lot of practice.

“You can’t fix a problem by doubling down on methods that don’t work,” she added.