Students in Manitoba are Canada's worst in math, reading: report

Manitoba students have the unenviable distinction of scoring the worst in Canada in math and reading, according to new standardized test results released this week.

The latest version of the Pan-Canadian Assessment of Reading, Mathematics and Science, which randomly tested Grade 8 students nationwide in 2019, shows the province continues to rank at or near the bottom in comparison to its Canadian peers.

But Manitoba improved to second-last among Canada's provinces in science, surpassing the last test in 2016.

Manitoba's Tory government has sought to reform the school system, in part, because students are falling behind in standardized tests such as this one. 

"Providing Manitoba's students with access to quality education is critical to our government's priorities," Education Minister Cliff Cullen said in a statement. He was not made available for an interview. 

"While these results are not optimal, we are encouraged by the work that is being done with our education partners to get better results for students."

Manitoba's efforts to transform the school system were sidetracked when the government withdrew its unpopular Bill 64. Critics assailed the legislation, suggesting it paid more attention to governance changes than improving the educational experience. 

NDP education critic Nello Altomare pointed the finger at an education system he argues has been underfunded by the Tory government. The province's contribution to total education costs has declined in recent years, the government's own FRAME (Financial Reporting and Accounting in Manitoba Education) report finds.

"When you don't put the funds where they need to be in the classroom, you're going to get results like this," Altomare said, adding he doesn't support using test scores as the only standard to measure classroom success.

Created by the Council of Ministers of Education, the PCAP tests students' science, math and reading every three years, with a focus on one of these subjects in each testing cycle. In 2019, mathematics was the focus.

Mathematics

Though Manitoba scores worse than any other province in mathematics, the vast majority of students achieved at least a Level 2 proficiency, which the testers consider the expected level for Grade 8 students

Eighty-three per cent of Manitoba students in Grade 8 are at or above expectations.

The remaining 17 per cent of students are underperforming, according to the report. The national average has 10 per cent of Grade 8 students falling behind.

At a score of 475, Manitoba students in 2019 performed seven points better than the baseline year of 2010, the last time that mathematics was the primary focus of the assessment.

In 2019, 83 per cent of English students hit the baseline in their understanding of Grade 8 mathematics, which was lower than the national average. A greater proportion of French students (86 per cent) performed well enough in math, but that was well shy of the 95 per cent average at French-language schools nationwide. (Quebec scored well above the national average).

The extensive math assessment also found that students scored lower than their Canadian peers in each of the four mathematics subdomains: numbers and operations; geometry and measurement; patterns and relationships; data management and probability. 

Reading

The study found Canadian Grade 8 students are improving marginally in their reading skills, and so too are Manitoba students. The province's Grade 8 students improved three points from their 2010 baseline, moving to 481 points.

But as with mathematics, Manitoba students are not keeping pace nationally. The province's students are 24 points below the Canadian mean (505). 

Only mean scores are reported in the assessments for reading and science. The report does not state the percentage of students who are at or above expectations. 

Manitoba students at English-language schools (482) outperformed their French-language counterparts (457), a trend experienced at a national level. The French score is a notable 11 points lower than the 2010 baseline.

Science

The gap between the national mean score (505) and Manitoba's tally (493) isn't as significant as in the reading category, but Manitoba remains below every province in the country except for Quebec (488).

Manitoba has improved significantly in the lab from the 2013 baseline, growing by 28 points.

Girls (494) performed slightly better than boys (491) and English-language students (493) are better at science than those in French-language schools (464).