More than three-quarters of Surrey’s Grade 10 students are holding their own when it comes to literacy skills, but where numeracy is concerned, it’s a different story.
According to results of graduation assessments completed in the 2022-23 school year, fewer than half (47 per cent) of the district’s Grade 10s are competent at applying math concepts learned in the classroom to real-world situations.
While low, the figure is slightly above the B.C. average, and represents a 14-per-cent improvement since the assessment was introduced in 2018-19, Kathy Puharich, the district’s director of instruction for priority practices, told Board of Education trustees.
Still, “we absolutely recognize that there’s work to be done here and we continue to make this a focus as we move forward,” she said.
Asked what the decline could be attributed to, assistant superintendent Christy Northway pointed to a shift to a concept-based curriculum, that “requires thinking about mathematics differently.”
“We have seen an enormous shift in this direction, so that teachers are looking at concepts over time and problem-based teaching that is rooted in real-world problems as opposed to textbooks,” Northway said.
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As to what more can be done to boost proficiency, Northway said to stay the course and “keep providing our teachers with structural practices that align with that.”
Puharich noted the low-proficiency finding is not unique to Surrey.
“We see this across the province and the world at large,” she said.
According to the latest Programme for International Student Assessment – which “assesses the extent to which 15-year-old students, near the end of their compulsory education, have acquired key knowledge and skills that are essential for full participation in modern societies” – an estimated 25 per cent of those students in OECD countries are low performers in math, reading and science.
The 2022 findings, gleaned from test results of some 690,000 students across 81 countries, were released in December of last year.
The global decline across all three areas was “unprecedented,” said Puharich.
But the news was not all bad, she continued, explaining that the results also show that Canada continues to rank among the top-10 performers in the world – and the performance of Surrey students helped keep it there.
“Random samples of 15-year-olds from each of our secondary schools were selected to participate in the assessment and contributed to that rating,” she said.
Puharich shared Grade 10-12 results – along with those of Grade 4 and 7 Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) tests – during the Jan. 17 Board of Education meeting.
The testing for the older students is a requirement of graduation. For the younger grades, it’s intended to prepare them for what’s to come in high school.
Puharich said most notable from the latest FSA exercise is the “significant” increase in the number of Grade 4 and 7 students that participated.
Historically, that rate has been as low as 40 per cent, but last fall, it climbed 35 per cent beyond what was seen in the 2022-23 school year; with 79 per cent (9,246 students) of the approximately 11,000 Grade 4 and 7s in the district testing, compared to 44 per cent (5,040 students) in the previous year.
The increase is “great news for Surrey,” Puharich said.
Northway attributed the upward shift in participation to a focus on better-communicating what the assessment is about, as well as how the results are used in the district, to parents and families.
Principals and vice-principals, along with the district’s communication department, were “absolutely instrumental” in supporting the messaging, she added.
“It really took the collective will to increase those participation rates.”
Education ministry officials have said the standardized assessments provide a snapshot of how well students are performing in the two areas, however, officials with the teachers’ union argue the FSAs are a waste of resources.
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Trustee Bob Holmes said while he shares some of the concerns around FSAs, he sees the value in higher participation rates providing a more accurate picture.
“When we get down to 60 per cent… it’s harder to use that,” he said.
Superintendent Mark Pearmain emphasized the FSAs are “one piece of evidence that allows us to engage our system and improve our system for all students across the board.”