Language scores down in latest P.E.I. student assessments

Some scores are up and some are down, but the overall picture for language skills in P.E.I. provincial assessments is not good.

The results, released Wednesday, are from tests administered last spring.

French immersion reading skills, measured in Grade 3, saw a big drop 68 per cent meeting expectations to 49 per cent. Grade 6 reading and writing both fell from 82 per cent to 64 per cent.

Grade 5 French immersion students, tested in writing, posted the only significant increase in language scores, to 59 per cent from 39.

Math skills as measured for Grades 3, 6 and 9 were largely unchanged, but some levels of students showed improvement in Grade 11.

"It's always a concern when see that there are students that could use some help in a particular area," said Minister of Education, Early Learning and Culture Jordan Brown.

"What we hope to achieve is to get them the help that they need."

Province says it will hire a new literacy coach

To that end, the province announced measures to try to improve literacy at the earliest grade levels.

"We're going to be working with our Grade 3teachers on writing instruction this year," said Tamara Hubley-Little, director of leadership and learning with the Department of Education.

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"But we're also implementing a new program for our kindergarten and Grade 1classes. And so that's directly as a result of what we're seeing with our writing results at grade three."

The province said it will hire a new literacy coach while implementing the new writing program at 39 schools.

Two years ago the P.E.I. government was cutting positions for literacy coaches, with former education minister Hal Parry saying those resources would be better used as classroom teachers.

At the time, officials with the formerEnglish Language School Board, including Hubley-Little, were crediting literacy coaches with an improvement in common assessment results.

Officials said including the new position there are currently8.5 literacy coaches supporting elementary English students across the province, but there was no immediate clarification as to how that number might have changed over the past several years.

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