Reading skills also in decline

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Education Minister Nancy Allan has been doing some work lately to respond to criticism that math skills of Manitoba students are deteriorating. But the same national and international tests that signal falling scores in math also hold a warning about students' reading skills. Where is the strategy to pick up Manitoba's socks there?

Ms. Allan and her deputy minister, Gerald Farthing, held a day-long summit Wednesday on "teaching and learning mathematics," with representatives of school districts, university math departments, and the Manitoba Association of Math Teachers. The emphasis on math, as a result of a poor showing in the latest national test on behalf of Canadian education ministers, was spurred by an outcry from a small group of math professors.

But where is the outcry on the declining skills in reading competency? Tests conducted for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development have shown a dramatic drop in the performance of Manitoba's 15-year-old students over the last decade.

In 2000, the first year of the international test known as PISA, Manitoba students did relatively well among Canadians, tying at fifth with Saskatchewan. The province's average score and rank, however, have declined steeply in all three tests conducted since then. Our students sat second to last in the latest assessment in 2009.

Every test showed this province scored below the Canadian average in reading and Manitoba had the largest drop of any province -- 34 points -- since 2000. Further, the proportion of those performing at the lowest levels increased, out of step with the Canadian trend.

Notably, PISA results show that the four western provinces, which share broad curriculum development, have all seen their reading scores fall each year since 2000. (PISA's results in science also indicate a substantial drop for Manitoba's results between 2006 and 2009.)

None of this is news to anyone in the education field. Indeed, university professors have complained for years about the deterioration of student writing skills. The national and international tests comparing Manitoba to other jurisdictions bear out the fact that this is not the grievance of an elite that holds unreasonably high expectations of the public school system. It reflects an alarming trend in important "core" subjects considered critical to success in life.

Mr. Farthing says the department is concerned about the declining reading proficiency. He says the language arts curriculum and teaching methods are under review, and the PISA results are being pulled apart to detect the detail of the problems.

It may be that the department should hold a summit, as it did for math, for reading. At Wednesday's math summit, he says, some teachers said some schools, and perhaps the curriculum, have swung too far away from the tried and true methods of yesteryear, to the detriment of students. Memorization of times tables, for example, has been tossed out by some when it clearly has its place in math learning, says Mr. Farthing. What many teachers want is balance.

Why has it taken so long for such sensible reflection to shed light on a problem that has compounded over many years? Ms. Allan is right to finally review the methods used and the material being taught in math. But parents and taxpayers have heard next to nothing about whether the department and schools have recognized the distressing trend in the way Manitoba students are scoring in reading competency. Some remedial programs were introduced years ago, with uneven results across schools.

Mr. Farthing says Manitoba Education is hard at work on the issue. That fact must be broadly shared with parents, who should be invited into the discussion.

Competency in language arts can determine a student's success in school, and is a good indicator for success in life. Like the lively discussion of late about math skills, it's long past time that a broad, meaningful discussion be launched about reading.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 17, 2012 A10