What PISA Results Mean For Canadian Students
PISA results Canada are out, and they are not promising. Released last month, the results show an ongoing decline in math and reading scores for Canadian students.
What is PISA?
The Program for Student Assessment (PISA) is an international test organized by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The test measures 15-year-old students’ abilities in reading, mathematics and science. The first PISA test was given in 2000 and repeated every three years since. The most recent exam was in 2022. In 2022, 81 countries participated, with 23,000 Canadian high school students writing the test in 867 schools from all 10 provinces in Canada.
The exam is meant to look at education on a global scale and improve education policies at the national level. Using the results helps countries track their students’ performance over time to view trends.
Canadian PISA Results 2022 At-A-Glance
How did Canadian students perform on the PISA exams?
According to the OECD, mathematics, reading, and science have all declined significantly since the test began in 2000. PISA results in Canada show Canada’s overall scores declined as follows:
- Math scores by 15 points
- Reading scores by 13 points
- Science scores by 3 points
Given that the pandemic occurred between the last exam in 2018 and the current 2022 exam, the decline is not that surprising. However, pandemic learning loss alone is not to blame for an overall trend that sees a decline in student performance. The OECD report points out that science and reading scores were already declining before the pandemic. Additionally, a few countries such as Belgium, Finland, and France and Canada already had a math downward trend.
Canada Not Alone
Other countries also saw performance decline in math, reading and science:
Across all participating countries:
- the average math score fell by about 15 points since the 2018 tests.
- the average reading score fell by about 10 points since the 2018 tests.
- the average science score remained relatively stable.
While overall student performance declines, Canada as a nation still performs well, scoring 497 in math; 507 in reading; 515 in science.
Oxford Learning Can Help
A personalized tutoring program is a proven way to help students become better than the statistics and beat the performance odds, bringing their personal baseline for performance up.
Customized math and reading programs help students identify the areas in need of the most attention and help students build strong skills to help them perform at their best, both in school, and on international exams.
Contact an Oxford Learning near you to learn more about our customized programs.
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