Students turning the corner on lagging marks, Winnipeg School Division says

Three times as many Grade 3 students in CFS care are now meeting the provincial standard for reading as compared to five years ago, the Winnipeg School Division says.

That's one of many signs of progress the division highlights in a new report, which it says show student improvement on test scores that often lag behind Canadian standards.

"We're seeing a year-over-year positive improvements in student success," WSD board chair Chris Broughton said Wednesday.

"We're very proud of the staff of the Winnipeg School Division for their hard work, dedication and innovation that has led to this very positive report today."

The results are included in the division's report as part of the province's K-12 Framework for Continuous Improvement — a provincial process launched in 2016 that outlines specific planning and reporting requirements for Manitoba school divisions, and provides data on student achievement.

The report comes just ahead of the expected release of a report that could bring significant changes to education in the province.

The provincial government launched a major review of K to 12 education last year. The independent commission's report is expected to be made public in March.

The Winnipeg School Division's latest framework report, released Wednesday, says the percentage of Grade 3 students who are reaching provincial expectations in reading has jumped to 46 per cent, up from 32 per cent five years ago — an increase of 14 percentage points.

The spike is largest among Grade 3 students living in the care of Child and Family Services. In the last five years, the percentage of students hitting the provincial target jumped to 26 per cent from nine per cent.

'No secret' WSD below provincial average

In a number of categories, the division is approaching the provincial average for student achievement, the report says, and sometimes exceeding it.

That's impressive, Broughton said, considering the challenges faced by many students in the division, which the report notes has an increasing number of kids in CFS care, and a growing number of children entering school with emotional or social challenges.

Poverty is the greatest barrier to a good education, Broughton said.

"It's no secret when you look at these graphs that we're starting out below the [provincial] average," he said.

"That's a reflection of the reality that our students face barriers to their education, barriers to their learning, whether that's a poverty issue, [or] safety in the home or in the community."

But he sees positive signs in the latest report.

"I think the excitement that we have within this report is despite those challenges, what we're seeing over the past 10 years is we're trending in the right direction."

In the last school year, 42 per cent of WSD's Grade 3 students met provincial expectations — an increase of 10 per cent of students in five years.

Among Grade 12 students, average marks are rising in the three standardized provincial tests (in English, math and French). The divisional average in the applied mathematics test exceeded 60 per cent for the first time in 2018-19.

"We're seeing some of our students that have struggled the most seeing very positive gains," Broughton said. "We're very excited about what that says about what we're doing."

The division will continue to lobby the province to recognize the challenges it faces in helping students living in poverty, said Broughton, and will encourage the province to provide support.

One success story he pointed to has been getting Grade 12 pre-calculus teachers to work with university mathematics professors to improve outcomes at both levels.

But the division understands it still has work to do to boost scores even more, said Broughton.

"This is a report where we're talking about our desire to continuously improve."