Ontario Grade 3 student achievement

Article: Ontario Grade 3 student achievement (PDF)

Objectives

• To become more aware of the factors that influence student achievement.
• To discuss the most effective ways of improving learning.

Method

1. Survey the class to find out how many students have taken provincial, national or international achievement tests to assess their skills in reading, writing, mathematics or science. Discuss why these tests are done and what is achieved by them.
2. Discuss why some students do better on achievement tests than others. What factors contribute to the differences?
3. Why is it important to assess reading, writing and mathematics skills of students at a young age such as in Grade 3?
4. Discuss how teachers and families could use these assessment results to possibly help improve young students'skills.
5. In April and May 2000, the Program for International Student Assessment measured the reading, mathematics and science literacy of 15-year-olds in 32 OECD countries. Overall, Canadian students performed well, ranking second in reading, sixth in mathematics and fifth in science among 32 countries. Canada is part of a cluster of countries that scored near the top in all areas. Only Finland performed significantly better than Canada in reading, only Korea and Japan scored significantly higher in mathematics and only Korea, Japan and Finland performed significantly better in science. Discuss if Canada should strive to score the highest in the world. How can this be achieved? Do achievement tests play a role in reaching this objective?

Using other resources

• Measuring student knowledge and skills: The performance of Canada's youth in reading, mathematics and science..

Please e-mail comments or examples of how you used this exercise in your class.