The results of the 2010 Primary Math Assessments are being sent home to parents and are available online, says Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Doug Currie.
“2010 was the first year that all Grade 3 students in Prince Edward Island participated in the Primary Math Assessment,” said Minister Currie. “The results are consistent with those from the previous year when a smaller group of students participated. We are encouraged by the fact that 80 per cent of Grade 3 students are meeting or approaching expectations in math. The math and literacy skills that they learn in Grades 1, 2 and 3 are vital in a 21st Century learning environment.”
The Primary Math Assessment measures mathematical knowledge and skills learned up to the end of Grade 3. In 2009, 492 students from the Western School Board and la Commission scolaire de langue française participated. This year, students from the Eastern School District were also included, bringing the total to 1,295 students from across Prince Edward Island. Five percent of the student population from across the province was exempt from the assessment for special educational reasons.
The 2010 results are consistent with the results from 2009 in that 80 per cent of students assessed either met or approached expectations and 20 per cent experienced difficulty. The scores of boys and girls were similar. There were some differences in the scores of students in French and French Immersion programs where 75 per cent of the students met expectations.
The Primary Math Assessment covers four areas of the math curriculum: number sense, patterns and relations, shape and space, and statistics and probability. Student success is measured by how students perform based on expectations set by a team of Island teachers.
The information collected is valuable on a number of levels. It gives parents an idea of how well their child is doing in math at this critical stage in development. It allows teachers to plan instruction by showing how well students are learning the curriculum and where they may need help. The data is used by school boards to allocate resources, and by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development to monitor and report on the performance of the public education system.
Several common literacy and math assessments are now in place across the public school system. They require that students in all schools take the same test at the same time, at the end of the primary, elementary or intermediate grades.
“As Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development, I am pleased to see our students are grasping math curriculum in the early grades,” said Minster Currie. “While the results are encouraging, there is always room for improvement and the department will continue to use the assessment data to provide teachers and administrators with the tools they need to improve student achievement across the province.”
The Primary Math Assessment reports are being sent home with Grade 4 students and the results are available online. Parents are encouraged to take the time to review the material and discuss the results with their child’s teacher.
For more information, visit the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development website at www.gov.pe.ca/eecd/ProvincialAssessment.