PEI·BY THE NUMBERS

P.E.I. shows significant improvement in international student testing

Prince Edward Island students bounced back in Programme for International Student Assessment results released Tuesday morning, following poor results in 2012.

P.E.I. above OECD average in all three testing areas

PISA tested 15-year-olds in 72 countries and all 10 Canadian provinces. (Syda Productions/Shutterstock)

Prince Edward Island students bounced back in Programme for International Student Assessment results released Tuesday morning, following poor results in 2012.

PISA tests 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics and science in 72 countries, and also broke down results by province in Canada.

In 2012 P.E.I. ranked at the bottom in Canada in every subject. It was also below the OECD average in all three subjects. No other Canadian province scored below the OECD average in any subject.

The 2015 results, however, show big improvements. P.E.I. is above the OECD average in all subjects, and ranks about in the middle of the provinces.

Standard error

PISA tested a sample of students. Results in the three subject areas and by jurisdiction have differing levels of accuracy as a representation of all students, so the numbers in parenthesis in the tables below represent the "standard error.

That number expresses "the degree of uncertainty associated with sampling error and measurement error," according to the report.

Science

P.E.I. students scored in the same range as Germany, the U.K. and Australia in science testing, and ranked fifth among the provinces.

Science
P.E.I. Canada OECD average
2015 515 (±5.4) 528 (±2.1) 493 (±0.4)
2012 490 525 501

Reading

In reading, P.E.I. had similar scores to Japan, Germany and Norway. Among the provinces it ranked sixth.

Reading
P.E.I. Canada OECD average
2015 515 (±6.1) 527 (±2.3) 493 (±0.5)
2012 490 534 497

Mathematics

Math scores for Island students were about the same as students in Austria, Norway and New Zealand. The province ranked fifth in Canada.

Mathematics
P.E.I. Canada OECD average
2015 499 (±6.4) 516 (±2.3) 490 (±0.4)
2012 479 518 494

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kevin Yarr

Web journalist

Kevin Yarr is the early morning web journalist at CBC P.E.I. Kevin has a specialty in data journalism, and how statistics relate to the changing lives of Islanders. He has a BSc and a BA from Dalhousie University, and studied journalism at Holland College in Charlottetown. You can reach him at kevin.yarr@cbc.ca.