- The British Columbia government has changed provincewide student testing in high schools so dramatically that it no longer produces quality provincewide student assessment data.
- Three significant changes have been introduced that weaken the results and usefulness of high school testing in BC:
- The assessments no longer affect a studentâs grade for the related course.
- Students are not required to pass the assessment to graduate.
- The assessments no longer test course-specific knowledge but rather broader concepts and ideas. Because of this, the tests are significantly less consequential for students.
- In 2021/22, participation in the Grade 10 numeracy assessment was 22.3 percentage points lower than the 2015/16 Grade 10 Math exam; participation in the 2021/22 Grade 10 literacy assessment was 17.1 percentage points lower than the 2015/16 Grade 10 English exam; and participation in the 2021/22 Grade 12 literacy assessment was 14.2 percentage points lower than the 2015/16 Grade 12 English exam.
- While writing these assessments is âmandatoryâ for graduation, fewer students are writing them, and BCâs graduation rateâ96 percentâhasnât plummeted.
- This reduces confidence that the new assessments reliably measure student performance. As a result, the Fraser Institute will not publish its Report Card on BC Secondary Schools, which has been published since 1998, unless the government reinstates quality provincewide high school testing.
- Teachers, school administrators, and policymakers have lost quality provincewide data to guide school improvement.
- BC parents have lost a valuable tool in understanding how their child and their school are performing.
Authors
Related Organizations
- Pages
- 2
- Published in
- Canada
Files
Table of Contents
- The End of Accountability in British Columbia High School Student Performance 2
- Contents 3
- Executive Summary 4
- Introduction 6
- Declining State of Provincewide Testing in British Columbia 8
- Fraser Institute Cannot Publish the Report Card on British Columbia Secondary Schools Until Government Reinstates Quality Provincewide Tests in High Schools 11
- Parental Support for Standardized Testing in British Columbia 12
- Declining Student Achievement in British Columbia 13
- Conclusion 20
- About the Author 23
- Publishing Information 24
- About the Fraser Institute 25
- Editorial Advisory Board 26
