Janice Tibbetts
CanWest News Service
Thursday, November 29, 2007
OTTAWA -- Canadian Grade 4 students are among the top readers in the world, with children from B.C., Ontario and Alberta outscoring their counterparts in almost every country on a global literacy test.
The 2006 international testing of 215,000 nine- and 10-year-olds placed Alberta third of the 40 countries and five provinces that took part, outranked only by the Russian Federation and Hong Kong.
B.C. students finished in fourth place and Ontario students were sixth. The other Canadian participants, Quebec and Nova Scotia, did not fare as well, ranking 16th and 23rd.
"I would say, in general, congratulations Canada," said Ina Mullis, of the International Study Center at Boston College in the United States, which conducted the study for the International Association for the Evaluation of Education Achievement.
"Most of the provinces seem to be doing so well. In general, Canada has a strong curriculum and a strong instructional and assessment system that keeps an eye on progress."
The U.S. ranked 18th and England was 19th, both slipping in the ratings since 2001.
B.C. Education Minister Shirley Bond described her province's results as "outstanding"and Kathleen Wynne, Ontario's education minister, praised students, teachers and parents for their hard work that has made the Ontario students "among the best in the world in reading."
The large-scale study found that Canadian children came out on top when it comes to reading stories and novels for pleasure. Students in Alberta, B.C., Ontario and Nova Scotia secured the first four spots in terms of the percentage of students who read daily when they are not in school. In all four provinces, at least 50 per cent of Grade 4 children read daily or almost daily.
Once reading on the Internet was thrown into mix, Canadian children dropped down the list.
The study also showed that girls solidly outperformed boys, reflecting a gender gap exposed repeatedly in other reports.
The researchers highlighted a strong connection between reading skills in Grade 4 and parents telling preschoolers stories, singing songs, and playing with alphabet toys and word games. Also, there was a significant difference in test scores between children who had more than 100 books at home and those who had less than 10.
