B.C. students are great at finding solutions to problems. They are in line with the best students in the world, and tops in Canada.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) today released the results of their first international assessment of 15-year-old students’ computer-based problem solving skills.

Of the 44 international jurisdictions that participated, only Japan, Korea and Singapore performed statistically above B.C. On a straight numerical rank basis, B.C. scored seventh, in line with Taipei, Hong Kong and Shanghai. In Canada, B.C. had the highest average score and was the only province to perform statistically above the Canadian average.

The 40-minute assessment required students to think on their feet and demonstrate critical thinking skills to tackle real life problems. They also had to figure out how to use unfamiliar devices and assess why a specific error occurred in a system. The assessment is not tied to the curriculum of any province, participating country, or economy but is instead a fair measurement of students’ abilities to use their learning skills to solve real-life situations.

•The PISA assessment is one of the most comprehensive programs of its kind in the world. It is conducted every three years and released by the OECD.
•PISA is designed to provide policy-oriented international indicators of the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students and shed light on a range of factors that contribute to successful students, schools, education systems and learning outcomes.
•In the PISA 2012 results released in December, on reading, science and mathematics – only one jurisdiction statistically performed above B.C.’s range in reading, only two jurisdictions in science and nine jurisdictions in mathematics.
•In 2012, a total of 510,000 students took part in the PISA study.
•In Canada, approximately 21,000 15-year-olds from 900 schools took part. This included 1,741 students from 74 B.C. schools.
•As well, the latest Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, demonstrated B.C.’s Grade 4 students were among the best readers in the world; B.C. was outperformed by only 4 of the 45 jurisdictions.