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Canada's first nation-wide Science Test

The first Canada-wide report on what students know and can do in science was released today. This study was the third component of the School Achievement Indicators Program (SAIP), sponsored jointly by the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) and Human Resources Development Canada.

A total of 2,200, 13 and 16-year olds in Newfoundland and Labrador formed part of the 37,500 students from across the country who participated in the study.

Roger Grimes, Minister of Education, joins the chairman of CMEC, J. Chester Gillan in acknowledging this important achievement of the members of CMEC who, for the first time, have designed, developed and administered a large scale science assessment, in both official languages, that also incorporates a hands-on practical component.

As with the earlier assessments in mathematics, and reading and writing, achievement in both the written and practical components of the science test is described in terms of five levels of performance, Level 1 being the lowest. Each of the five levels is associated with a set of criteria which students have to meet in order to be rated at that level. Major findings include the following:

• on the written assessment 72 per cent of 13 year-olds both nationally and in this province achieved at level 2 or above

• 64.4 per cent of 16 year-olds in Newfoundland and Labrador achieved at level 3 or above which is statistically different from the 69 per cent of similar students who reached this level nationally

• for 13 and 16 year-old students performing at levels 4 and 5, no significant differences in performance are found between this province and the country as a whole

• nationally, 13 year old girls performed as well as boys at all levels, however there is a slight but significant difference in performance at Levels 3 to 5 in favour of boys

While noting with satisfaction the fact that the top performing students in this province are on a par with their peers across the country, the Minister of Education points out the education system cannot be satisfied with the large number of students in the middle performance range failing to reach the national performance level in this important curriculum area.

In order to provide an interpretive framework within which to examine the results of SAIP science 1996, CMEC convened a 84-member, broadly based, national panel of Canadian educators and non-educators. The mandate of this group was to establish national expectations for student performance in science by establishing the percentage of students who should achieve at each of the five performance levels in both the written and practical components. The panel concluded that the numbers of students achieving at levels 1-3 were generally acceptable but that insufficient numbers were achieving at the higher levels.

A detailed technical report will be made available in April 1997 which will enable a more indepth analysis of the achievement levels as well as the responses to the background questionnaire that provided students with the opportunity to describe their attitudes towards science and their experiences in science classes. Such information may shed some light on how to address weaknesses and build upon strengths.

CMEC is actively involved in the second series of SAIP assessments. In April 1997 the second administration of the mathematics component will take place. Information from this upcoming assessment will provide the opportunity to compare results with those achieved four years ago in the first series in 1993.

Contact: Helen Banfield, (709) 729-5108, E-mail: hbanfiel@edu.gov.nf.ca, or Carl Cooper, (709) 729-0048.