Ontario Students' Achievement In Science Recognized Among Best In The World
December 4, 2007
TORONTO - The province's fifteen-year-old students are achieving excellent results in science, according to an international study released today, said Education Minister Kathleen Wynne.
Ministry of Education
Ontario Students' Achievement In Science Recognized Among Best In The World
Ontario Youth Score High Marks In International Study
TORONTO, Dec. 4 /CNW/ - The province's fifteen-year-old students are achieving excellent results in science, according to an international study released today, said Education Minister Kathleen Wynne.
"I am very pleased with the high performance of our students in science on the world stage," added Wynne. "The top performance of Ontario's youth shows that we are equipping our students with the tools they need to succeed in the competitive global economy of the 21st century."
Canada was one of 57 countries that participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and ranked among the top countries.
In overall science, only Finland and Hong Kong-China were in a performance range higher than Canada. Within Canada, only Alberta was in a performance range higher than Ontario. The average score of Ontario students in overall science achievement has increased by 15 points since 2000.
The report also found that immigrant students in Canada performed much better than immigrant students across all Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Overall results for Canada show that our students are able to achieve a greater degree of equity regardless of socio-economic status when compared to other countries. PISA also found that there were not any significant gender differences across the country when
combined science scores were evaluated, but found that boys performed better at mastering scientific knowledge and girls demonstrated better performance at seeing the larger picture enabling them to identify scientific questions.
"Ontario is achieving excellence in an international context because we are committed to helping every student reach his or her full potential," said Wynne. "I'd like to applaud the students, parents and educators for the work they've done to achieve these great results."
About 22,000 15-year-old Canadian students from 1,000 schools participated from across the 10 provinces. In Ontario, 2,928 students from 73 English-language and 47 French-language schools participated.
PISA is an international assessment of the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students. It assesses youth outcomes in three domains: reading, mathematics and science, focusing on what students can do with what they have learned in school, at home, and in the community. PISA was first implemented in 2000 and is repeated every three years with each cycle providing detailed assessment in one of the three domains. In PISA 2006 science was the major assessment domain while reading and mathematics were included as minor domains.
The Education Quality and Accountability Office coordinated Ontario's participation in PISA 2006, and a document highlighting Ontario student results is available at www.eqao.com.
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