PISA 2022 Results Are In
Well the PISA results were announced yesterday and they sure didn't disappoint, in terms of, er, disappointment! We've been sounding the alarm bells for over a decade now, and boy oh boy...we're in freefall mode out here on the Left Coast. Last year’s assessment focused on mathematics, although it also assessed Reading & Science. Here are a few highlights on British Columbia’s math performance:
- Since
2003, academic achievement has declined from a high of 538 points, to an
abysmal 497 points last year (2022). According to PISA,
a 20 point drop is equivalent to a loss of a full year of learning.
So today’s students, despite skyrocketing education budgets, more
teachers, and smaller class sizes, are fully 2 years behind those students
taking math class 20 years ago. That is shocking!
- Level 2
indicates students are barely functionally numerate. Level 5+6 indicates
the highest level of mathematical understanding. Since 2003, the
percentage of students that are barely functioning, has risen from 9% to
21.3% - fully over a 230% increase. Whereas the brightest students, at
Level 5+6, went from a high of 22% in 2003, to merely 12% in 2022.
- British
Columbia students experienced the biggest significant decline after the
BCED plan was implemented in 2016 (16 point loss between 2003-12; 26 point
loss between 2012-22). And yet the BCEd plan was supposed to make
kids...SMARTER?!? (even though it rejected every single piece of evidence
behind effective instruction and removed all meaningful standards in the
curriculum...and cancelled ALL provincial exams).
It’s hard knowing these FACTs and not be cynical. Is the Province in collusion with the BCTF, to remain silent on this issue while continuing to shovel cash into their coffers? What about the media? What motivates them to continue haranguing on about bike lanes while the school system is in tatters...leaving our kids even further behind than ever before? It’s not lost on me to see that the provinces which have implemented positive changes over the past 10 years (PEI, Ontario, Alberta, and Manitoba) have started to see their decline slow down, whereas in British Columbia our academic achievement is barreling downhill in a freefall sprint. Because it’s the TRENDS which requires attention, and BC is in trouble. So why isn’t any investigation being done about this? At the very least...why aren’t any questions being raised?
Here are a few illustrations about how we're doing. I'll leave it to you to determine what the conclusions might be for our kids' futures if this continues unabated. Sources came from Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC)
Just to be clear, there are many teachers who are squawking, but we have been (and continue to be) silenced, and remain unheard. The bleeding-edge Koolaid-drinkers were the ones chosen by their friends to be on the committees that watered down the curriculum and removed the standards. There are lots of experienced teachers who are quietly still fighting the good fight, still teaching skills and maintaining rigour. But we are swimming upstream while being denigrated by both our own Admin as well as less-experienced colleagues who have never known best-practices and don't understand the value of the “old ways”. As we try to point out the problems and fallacies, we are fought at every step of the way by administrators and parents who want us to lower our standards while inflating marks, undermined by a Ministry that does not value meaningful education, while watching our students become less globally competitive every year. It is soul-destroying, and is the reason why many good teachers have left the profession in the last 5-10 years. For those experienced souls who endure, it is our stubborn, Atlas-like persistence that is holding up the buckling system as we try to take students who have been pushed through K-9 when they should have failed, “proficient” yet who can't read or write, and we do our best to create literate and numerate citizens. I am honestly surprised the 12% number isn’t lower, and the 21% higher. We are the canaries screaming while the mine burns.
ReplyDelete