Math literacy drops in latest PISA survey

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This article was published 11/12/2023 (706 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The OECD released the results of a 2022 survey on 38 participating countries on Tuesday and most countries continue to see a drop in math literacy in Grade 10 students, including those in Canada and Manitoba.

The PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) is a digital survey of a sample size of 15-year-old students in each country and in the country’s major regions. The survey is conducted by the OECD every three to four years.

In Canada, all 10 provinces participated in the PISA test. In Manitoba, 2,060 students were surveyed, representing Grade 10 students in the province. The students’ mean score was 472 — a nearly 12 point drop from the 2018 PISA test and an 18 point drop from the 2015 PISA test.

“A lot of European countries and North American countries now went down,” said Miyako Ikeda, a specialist with the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development). “Some of the Asian countries stayed the same or went up. Then for the reading, there is no performance change in Manitoba and then also science, no change over time. And reading is above the OECD average performance.”

Ikeda explained the PISA test is only meant as a “snapshot” of students’ performance in school and that many factors can influence the results.

“This is not the census, meaning that we sample students from the country. So there is some uncertainty. If you repeat exactly the same PISA another time with a different set of the students in Manitoba, maybe performance will be slightly different. We have to compute the uncertainty around the estimate: Manitoba has 472 for the mathematics score, but actually it can be a little bit below 472, and a little bit over 472. So we need to consider that because it’s a sample-based assessment,” said Ikeda.

Education Minister Nello Altomare, who was a math teacher during his career as an educator, said he only used the PISA results as one of many tools to measure how his class was doing.

“This is just another assessment tool that teachers use to design their lesson plans,” Altomare said. “This will give them some feedback — it’s just one of many tools and feedback items that we have to guide our practices as teachers. I suppose some will look at this and say, ‘OK, we’ll have to get to work on this.’ But teachers know their kids really well, and what they need, and they’ll program appropriately.”

Brandon School Division superintendent and CEO Matthew Gustafson said PISA is not a true measurement of students’ math literacy.

“Sometimes people will take it and try to use a broad measure — like PISA results as an indicator of students meeting curricular outcomes, which would not be accurate. That’s a very oversimplistic approach. (PISA) is not meant to be that,” said Gustafson. “But the reason why it’s so big is that they look at several different factors through that, including social economic status. The other piece with PISA is it samples 15 year olds. It’s not tracking how students do across time.”

Ikeda said there are many reasons that could cause students math scores to be lower, such as social and economic factors. Out of the 2,060 Manitoba students surveyed:

• 27 per cent felt they “didn’t feel they belong at school.”

• 20 per cent “felt lonely at school.”

• 26 per cent “felt like an outsider at school.”

• 24 per cent “felt awkward and out of place.”

Ikeda said those results did not increase from the 2018 test, but it still works out to about one in four students who don’t feel good about school. For all of Canada, the percentage of students who agreed with the above statements is about 16 per cent.

Another interesting take from the PISA results was other possible reasons for the decline in math — distractions like cellphones. Manitoba students answered that:

• 15 per cent get distracted by their devices every lesson.

• 26 per cent get distracted by their devices most lessons.

• 38 per cent get distracted by their devices some lessons.

• 40 per cent of students get distracted by someone else’s device most lessons.

Altomare said he was bothered by these stats and more conversations need to happen about digital devices in schools and how to grow with the rate of technology.

“I’m a little concerned about the impact of personal devices, and how we’re going to navigate this moving forward,” he said. “I think we need to have a broader dialogue on how this looks in schools. We have to experiment — the DSFM has banned personal devices in schools. So it would be interesting to talk to them and see how they’re doing. I want to reach out and see how that’s working.”

The DSFM (Division Scolaire Franco-Manitobaine) banned personal devices in October throughout their school system. In the DSFM, K-8 students are not permitted to bring their phones into the schools. In DSFM high schools, students cannot bring phones into class.

» khenderson@brandonsun.com