Liberals still keeping lid on student standardized test results

Standardized academic test results for New Brunswick schoolchildren, which have been under wraps since the fall with no explanation, could finally be released this week.

"Details are being finalized and the results should be posted later (in the) week," Kelly Cormier, a spokesperson with theDepartment of Education, wrote in an email to CBC News.

• Inclusive classrooms need more resources to curb low test scores
• Brian Kenny says low student test scores are 'not that good'
• Grade 2 anglophone literacy results down 12% since 2010

Last year New Brunswick students in Grade2, 4, 6, 10 and 12 took a variety of standardized tests to measure proficiency in various subjects, including math, science, reading and language skills.

Results of the tests were promised last fall but with one exception have been held back.

Test results help expose weaknesses in the school system and also track whether the education being delivered to children is improving or worsening over time.

Callsfor progress in targets

In 2016 New Brunswick adopted a 10-year education plan to drive progress in the school system. In the plan,testing students and publicly reporting on the results is a central element.

"The plan establishes clear expectations on standards and performance, with outcome measures that will be tracked and reported," Premier Brian Gallant wrote in the document's introduction.

The education plan calls for progress toward academic targets to be published annually but after embarrassingly poor assessment results were released in the fall of 2016, information appeared to dry up in 2017.

Of 12 assessments done on New Brunswick anglophone students in five grades last year, the results of only one has been released so far. Thedepartment refused a CBC request last month to view the rest.

"The results are not currently available but we will advise you when they are," Cormiersaid at the time.

Grade 2 results miss target

Last November the province did release 2017 reading assessment results from Grade 2 students in the anglophone system.

Test scores showed 75.7 per cent of students scored appropriate or above for reading proficiency in 2017.

Although it was the second-worst score recorded on the assessment in the last 10 years and well below the target of 90 per cent, it was still a modest improvement from 2016 and government quickly cited it as an example of progress.

"Thanks to the efforts of our government, the literacy level of New Brunswick students is improving," said Liberal MLA Bernard LeBlanc during member statements in the legislature in November about the lone release of the single Grade 2 test.

2016 results 'disappointing'

More concerning in 2016, however, were Grade 6 results and so far the 2017 version of thoseand other assessments, remain secret.

In 2016, there were5,006 Grade 6 students whotook a math assessment and 3,995 of them failed to achieve an "appropriate" or better score, which involves answering at least 64 per cent of math questions correctly.

It was a failure rate eight times higher than targets the province had set for math achievement in that grade.

Grade 6 results in science were nearly as bad, and reading results, although somewhat better, were also poor. The number of Grade 6 students falling short of "appropriate" in reading proficiency was 2,303, nearly five times higher than the provincial target.

Education Minister Brian Kenny acknowledged the 2016 results were disappointing but predicted they would begin to improve quickly.

"These results here are not good, there's no doubt," he said in October 2016. "But there's lots of optimism with our new 10-year education program. "I do believe we've identified some issues that are there in the province with regards to our results. We have no where to go but up."

But whether results did improve in 2017 remains a mystery.

In preparing parents for testing in 2017, the province pledged the results would be transparent and available publicly "in the fall of 2017" but that mostly failed to happen.

Results that have not been released so far include math, science and reading assessments of grades 4 and 6 students and science and math assessments of students in Grade 10. Those exams were all written between May 8 and June 9 last year.

Also missing are Grade 6, 10 and 12 assessments of students French second language oral proficiency.