Canadian students are getting worse at math.
That’s according to a new Fraser Institute study by Derek J. Allison and Vincent Geloso that reviews available test results from several international studies and examines trends in the provinces’ own measures of math performance against their own curriculum standards.
Of particular note are the results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Conducted every three years to gauge the performance of lower secondary school students, it is the most widely accepted academic proficiency measure around the world. Examining these scores, the Fraser Institute study shows that Students in every province recorded declining results in international math tests over a 15-year period from 2003 – 2018. As a result, Canada has fallen from being ranked fifth overall in 2003, to being ranked 12th overall in 2018 (the most recent assessment).
The most severe declines in provincial PISA scores are to be found in Manitoba (8.7 percent), Alberta (6.9 percent) and British Columbia (6.3 percent).
Ontario has recently adopted a “Back to Basics” math curriculum in hopes of arresting this decline, while Alberta likewise is set to introduce changes to its curriculum.
Quebec students seem to be mostly exempt from this overall decline, with their scores holding essentially steady within the PISA study. They registered a non-statistically significant dip of 0.7 percent over this 15-year time period.
