Student tests show work needs to be done: officials

Student assessment tests results released by the P.E.I. government Thursday are disappointing, but not unexpected, say education officials.

'This kind of affirms what the thinking was.' Linda Lowther, Department of Education

The tests focused on two particular areas, language skills for Grade 3 and math skills for Grade 9.

In the math test, the Grade 9 students scored an average of 61 per cent. The Grade 3 results were measured differently, with 38 per cent not reaching the accepted standard.

Linda Lowther, senior director of public education with the province, told CBC News Thursday that while the results were not as good as hoped for, they were not a surprise. Teachers had already told the task force on student achievement, which recommended these assessments, that about 30 per cent of students were having problems.

"This kind of affirms what the thinking was during the consultations and what teachers have told us," said Lowther.

"Now we have that baseline and we know, with the funding that we're getting for the student achievement recommendations, where to target our money."

The reading and math assessments were done in the spring of this year. Individual results were released to parents last week.

The results released Thursday provide a provincewide picture only. They don't break down how one school did against another or even how one school district compares to another.

Education Minister Gerard Greenan said the priority is looking at the system as a whole.

"We were looking at how at a particular grade's students would perform based on our curriculum," said Greenan.

"I'm quite confident [a school-by-school comparison] was never the intent with these common assessments."

One of the goals of the task force that recommended the assessments was to have everyone reading at a Grade 3 level by the time they entered Grade 4.

Beth Cullen, a mother of four children in Island schools, served on that task force. She said while the results weren't stellar, it's good to at least have a starting point.

"It's just a reminder of how important it is that we do this common assessment because we wouldn't have these results if we didn't test them," she said.

"I hope when they look at these results, they'll say, 'You know what, we need to work here in the Grades 1 to 3 level.' We have to improve the standard of literacy and that should be our goal."

Cullen said the next step is to determine the approach to improve student performance, whether it is more funding, different training for teachers, different books or some other strategies.

Students writing better than they are reading

The tests broke results down into more specific areas. Grade 3 students fared a little better in writing than reading, with a particular strength in writing that required organizational skills, such as writing out instructions. More than 80 per cent reached the standard in that particular area.

Trouble areas included writing complex sentences and writing an answer to a specific question.

On the math tests, Grade 9 students did well in their understanding of the meaning of numbers, geometry and data management. They struggled with multiplication, division and principles in problem solving.

The Liberals plan to continue with the provincial tests this year, expanding the program to include Grade 6 English and Grade 3 French.