Canadian Students Rank 9th in World for Math Despite Scores Plummeting 15 Points

High school students in London, Ont., in a file photo. (Geoff Robins/AFP via Getty Images)

Canadian high school students ranked among the top 10 countries on an international math and reading test despite scores declining sharply in both subjects over the past 20 years, according to a new global report.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) latest study tested the math, reading, and science knowledge and skills last year of 15-year-old students at 867 schools from every province in Canada.

The results of the Programme for International Student Assessment—better known as the PISA test—revealed that Canadian students scored higher than the OECD average in mathematics, reading, and science. Canada scored ninth overall in math and was the only country in North America to make the study’s top 10. Canada also scored sixth in reading and seventh in science.

Despite performing well internationally, Canadian students’ math scores have dropped 15 points between 2018 and 2022, the equivalent of losing out on three-quarters of a year of learning.

Reading scores dipped 13 points while science scores were slightly more consistent, with a three-point drop.

Only 12 percent of Canadian students ranked as high math achievers, scoring at Level 5 or 6, compared to Singapore’s 41 percent, China’s 29 percent, and Japan’s 23 percent.

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Seventy-eight percent of Canadian students attained at least Level 2 baseline proficiency in math, which was higher than the OECD average of 69 percent but still lower than top-scoring Singapore’s 85 percent.

Pandemic Learning

The consistent decline, particularly in math, was at least partly caused by school shutdowns and out-of-class learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Louis Volante, a professor of education governance at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario.

“Governments anticipated there would be a drop in test scores due to COVID-19 disruption. But few would have predicted such significant learning losses,” Mr. Volante wrote in an opinion piece on The Conversation. “Since PISA was first administered in 2000, Canada has never experienced a drop of 15 score points in any area as has happened this year.”

He cautioned both policymakers and parents against trying to implement a quick fix such as hyper-focusing on math at the expense of other subjects.

“Narrowing the curriculum often accompanies significant test score drops, which unfortunately contribute to school failure and negatively impact countries’ future economic prosperity,” he wrote.

‘Follow the Money’

While the pandemic had an undeniable impact on learning, the downward trend in math scores began long before 2022, pointed out University of Winnipeg math professor Anna Stokke.

“Obviously COVID will have impacted the most recent scores, but the trend started well before that,” she said in a Dec. 5 social media post. “In particular, Manitoba has fallen 58 points since 2003. Alberta 45 points.”

Ms. Stokke pointed to the way math is being taught in the classroom as a problem, citing a lack of proper professional development (PD) for teachers.

“Who’s being contracted to give professional development to teachers? Where’s the evidence that what they’re saying works?” she asked in another post. “Engagement is a poor proxy for learning; telling everyone to have a growth mindset is not going to improve math scores. So much money spent on PD and a lot of it likely has no impact, or a negative impact.”

The key to students excelling in math is simple, Ms. Stokke said. It comes down to “explicit instruction” and a lot of practice.

“You can’t fix a problem by doubling down on methods that don’t work,” she added. “And, if you want to see what’s going wrong with math, follow the money. Lots of people making money on unhelpful PD.”

Reading and Science

Canada ranked higher than any other North American country in both reading and science scores, scoring sixth and seventh respectively, but was still far behind top-scoring Singapore which took first place in all three categories.

Fourteen percent of Canadian students scored at Level 5 or higher in reading, more than double the OECD average of 7 percent. Eighty-two percent of students in Canada scored a Level 2 or higher in reading compared to the 74 percent OECD average.

In science, 12 percent of Canadian students were top performers compared to the OECD average of 7 percent. Some 85 percent of students in Canada attained Level 2 or higher in science, again above the OECD average of 76 percent.

Compared to 2012, the number of students scoring below a Level 2 increased by seven percentage points in math; by seven percentage points in reading; and by four percentage points in science.

Provincial and Gender Breakdown

Quebec students had the highest math scores in the country, and also performed well internationally.

“Quebec students particularly excelled in mathematics and achieved rankings comparable to some of the highest-performing countries and economies in the assessment,” the OECD said in a Dec. 5 press release.

Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario all performed above the OECD math average while students in Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador did not.

In reading, Ontario, Alberta, Quebec, and Prince Edward Island students shared top standing compared with the other provinces.

Male students outperformed female students by 12 points in math while girls scored 24 points higher than boys in reading.

Eighty-one countries participated in the 2022 PISA testing, with more than 23,000 Canadian high school students writing the test.