Lower scores in younger grades a red flag for N.B. education system, advocate says
Kelly Lamrock says the latest provincial assessment results show need for changes in the classroom
A continued decline in literacy scores among younger students, even as other grades improve, is a warning sign for the education system, according to New Brunswick's child, youth and seniors' advocate.
Kelly Lamrock says the latest provincial assessment results, issued on Wednesday, show an urgent need for changes to either classroom size or composition.
"Something I do notice in this report ... it seems to be something that wasn't there in the past, which is there is more of a gap between early and later years," Lamrock said in an interview.
"We are starting to mediate some of those problems, it appears, in later grades ... What we're not doing is giving every kid an equal head start."
The success rates for anglophone students in Grade 6 and Grade 9 improved to 76 and 82 per cent, respectively.
The Grade 4 results for anglophone students dipped by a small amount — the fourth year in a row there's been a decline.
While the report says that decline was not a "statistically significant" change, Education Minister Claire Johnson still noted that result as a point of concern in a statement.
"While the decline was small — one percentage point across the province — we are concerned because we know how important literacy is," she said.
"We know that if we focus there, then it's kind of going to echo throughout their schooling trajectory," Johnson said in an interview.
Similar trends in anglophone, francophone schools
The difference in success rates for older and younger students is reflected in both the anglophone and francophone systems.
Francophone students in grades 2 and 3 saw reduced success on reading evaluations, with 60 and 68 per cent pass rates, respectively.
Grade 4 francophone students saw a notable decline in writing results, with a 60 per cent pass rate — 10 per cent lower than the previous year.
Meanwhile, francophone students in Grade 7 saw an increase in reading success to a 75 per cent pass rate. The pass rate for Grade 7 on the writing test jumped by 10 per cent to about 62 per cent.
The difference in success by grade was true both for students in early entry French immersion and in English prime.
However, the overall pass rates were considerably different. Grade 4 early immersion students had a 64 per cent success rate compared to about 52 per cent in English prime.
Grade 6 early French immersion students had a 90 per cent success rate compared to 67 per cent in English prime.
Mathematics scores for both Grade 5 and Grade 7 students were also concerning, Lamrock said.
"On the math assessments, we are seeing, you know, as many children fail as succeed in elementary school," he said. "That's got to be a warning sign."
Classroom changes, earlier testing
Lamrock said adjusting classroom composition is key to addressing literacy rates and lagging scores among English prime students.
Classroom composition refers to the number of students in a class that tend to require less support and are ready to learn, he said, compared to the number of students who are anticipated to need more support due to disability, behavioural problems or other challenges.
Without composition change, smaller class sizes may be necessary, he said.
A report issued this year from the previous government on how to improve the anglophone system said the classroom composition model would be reviewed, but did not include details or targets.
Johnson, who was sworn into her position earlier this month, said there are no details yet on how that review will proceed.
But she believes hiring more teaching staff and evaluating students earlier will be important next steps.
"We haven't landed yet if that's going to be kindergarten, Grade 1 or Grade 2, but it's going to be certainly within that realm, the K-2 window," she said.
"The earlier that we can do the testing and get ... some kind of baseline data to see where we're at, in my mind the better it is."
Bill Hogan, education minister for the last two years under Blaine Higgs, said he hopes the new Liberal government will continue working on the recommendations tabled during his tenure.
He also wants to see the government set targets for improvement.
"It's important to identify how come we're where we're at and what we need to do to improve," Hogan said. "But it's also important to identify how much we want to improve and be realistic about that ... in particular in the elementary years."
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