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Performance of Canada's youth in science, reading and mathematics
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Canadian 15-year-old students still are among the best in the world when it comes to science, reading and mathematics, according to new results from an international study that assesses the skill level of students nearing the end of their compulsory education.
Results from the 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a collaborative effort among member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), show that Canadian students performed well in all three domains relative to their international peers. In other words, Canada has retained its high standards since 2003, when PISA was last conducted.
On the combined science scale, only students from Hong Kong-China and Finland outperformed Canadian 15-year-olds among the 57 participating countries. While all Canadian provinces performed at or above the OECD average on the combined science scale, there were some notable differences among the provinces.
Canadian 15 year-olds also performed well in the two other domains measured by PISA 2006—reading and mathematics. Their performance remained high, but unchanged, in these two domains between 2000 and 2006.
In both reading and mathematics, only Korea, Finland and Hong Kong-China performed better than Canada. Hong Kong-China and Korea improved their performance in reading, leap-frogging Canada in this domain for the first time. In addition, Chinese Taipei performed better than Canada in mathematics.
Note to readersData in this release are from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a collaborative effort among member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to provide policy-oriented international indicators of the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students. In Canada, PISA is administered through a partnership of the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada and Statistics Canada. It assesses youth outcomes in three domains—reading, mathematics and science—focussing on what students can do with what they have learned in school, at home, and in the community. Science was the major assessment domain in PISA 2006. Reading and mathematics were included as minor domains. First implemented in 2000, PISA is repeated every three years. Each cycle provides detailed assessment in the major domain and summary assessments in the other two. In total, 57 countries participated in PISA 2006, including all 30 OECD countries. In Canada, about 22,000 15-year-old students from about 1,000 schools participated. A large sample was drawn in Canada so that information could be provided at both national and provincial levels. The PISA 2006 included a direct assessment of students' skills, a student questionnaire, and a school questionnaire completed by principals. The school and student questionnaire were used to collect background and contextual information related to student performance. |
The results suggest that although their performance in reading is strong, Canadian 15-year olds will need to improve at the rate of other leading countries to ensure Canada maintains its competitive edge.
Canadian 15-year-olds perform well in science
A full assessment of science took place for the first time in 2006. Previously, it was measured only as a minor domain. As a result, it is not possible to directly compare science performance over time.
However, examining Canada's relative position, only two countries—Hong Kong-China and Finland—outperformed Canadian 15-year-olds in combined science in 2006, compared with four countries in 2003.
This relative change in ranking may be attributable to an improvement in performance in Canada, a decrease in performance in other countries, or a combination of both.
The science performance of students was measured using a scale consisting of six proficiency levels, with higher proficiency levels indicating a higher level of science knowledge and skills. A higher proportion of Canadian students performed at the two highest proficiency levels (Levels 5 and 6) in combined science compared with the OECD average.
Furthermore, a lower proportion of 15-year-old Canadians performed at Level 1 or below. Overall, Canadian 15-year-old students scored almost one-half of a proficiency level above the OECD average.
Although Canada is one of the leading countries in science performance, there was a large gap in performance between Canada and the leading country, Finland. This gap was equivalent to almost one-half of a proficiency level.
All provinces performed above the OECD average in science. Furthermore, students from Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec were only out-performed by their Finnish counterparts.
There were some important differences among provinces. The average performance of students in Alberta was significantly above the Canadian average. Those in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia performed about the same as the Canadian average.
Students in Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba and Saskatchewan performed significantly below average.
Students from Alberta performed almost two-thirds of a proficiency level higher than students from Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick on the combined science scale.
Reading and math: Canada's performance unchanged, but more countries outperform it
Canadian 15-year-old students maintained their level of achievement in reading from 2003. However, they were outperformed by Finland, Hong Kong-China and Korea, as opposed to only one country in previous assessments.
This suggests that although Canada's performance in reading is strong, Canadian 15-year-olds must improve in reading at the pace of other leading countries, not just simply maintain the status quo, if they are to keep the nation's competitive edge.
In mathematics, Canadian students continued to perform well in 2006, although they were outperformed by students in Chinese Taipei, Finland, Korea and Hong Kong-China.
All provinces performed at or above the OECD average in the two minor domains of reading and mathematics. However, differences in performance among the provinces in all three domains raise interesting questions of equity.
Girls and boys perform equally well in science, though they excel in different competencies
In Canada, as well as in a majority of other countries, there were no gender differences in combined science performance and in the sub-domain of "using scientific evidence."
However, in Canada and eight of its provinces, as well as in most countries, boys out performed girls in the sub-domain of "explaining phenomena scientifically." Girls outperformed boys in the sub-domain "identifying scientific issues."
The performance patterns on these two sub-scales suggest boys and girls have very different levels of performance in different areas of science.
It appears that boys may be better at mastering scientific knowledge. Girls may be better at seeing the larger picture that enables them to identify scientific questions that arise from a given situation.
In Canada, boys outperformed girls in mathematics, but the difference was a relatively small 14 score points. Furthermore, there was no difference between girls and boys in four provinces: Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan.
On the other hand, there was a relatively large difference (33 score points for Canada) favouring girls in reading in the vast majority of countries and in all Canadian provinces.
Students in minority language school systems show lower results in science
The PISA 2006 results are provided for students in the English-language and French-language school systems for the five Canadian provinces that sampled these population groups separately.
The performance of the minority language group—students in French-language school systems in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Manitoba, and students in the English-language school system in Quebec—is compared to that of the majority.
In the combined science scale, students in the minority language group performed lower than those in the majority language group in the same province.
As was the case in PISA 2000 and PISA 2003, students enrolled in the French-language school systems in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Manitoba performed significantly lower in reading than did students in the English-language system in the same province.
In Quebec, student performance in reading did not differ between the English-language and French-language school systems.
For mathematics, there were significant differences favouring the English-language system in New Brunswick and Ontario, and differences favouring the French-language school system in Quebec.
No significant differences in mathematics were observed between the English-language and the French-language school systems in Nova Scotia and Manitoba.
Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 5060.
The report Measuring Up: Canadian Results of the OECD PISA Study: The Performance of Canada's Youth in Science, Reading and Mathematics: 2006 First Results for Canadians Aged 15, no. 3 (81-590-XIE2007001 free) is now available online from the Publications module of our website. A printed version (81-590-XPE, $11) will soon be available.
The report is also available on the websites of the Programme for International Student Assessment (www.pisa.gc.ca) and the Council of Ministers of Education of Canada (www.cmec.ca).
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Client Services (toll-free 1-800-307-3382; 613-951-7608; fax: 613-951-9040; educationstats@statcan.gc.ca), Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics.
