Teachers in Halifax to Mark International Reading Assessment

Teachers from across Canada are in Halifax this week to help measure the reading skills of the country's Grade 4 students.

About 100 teachers are marking the reading tests of more than 25,000 Canadian students who wrote the Progress In Reading Literacy Studies (PIRLS) test last April.

"I am very pleased Nova Scotia was chosen as the centre for marking the Canadian sample of this international assessment," said Education Minister Karen Casey. "Nova Scotia is committed to measuring student achievement nationally, internationally and provincially. These assessments give us the information we need to continually improve."

The PIRLS assessment, which measures trends in children's reading achievement, was administered to students in more than 50 countries, including Canada. This is the first year that Nova Scotia students have participated in the assessment. Other provinces that participate include British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec.

Traditionally, Nova Scotia students have done well on international literacy assessments. In the Programme for International Student Achievement assessments conducted in 2000 and 2003, Nova Scotia 15-year-olds did significantly better than the majority of students from 40 other countries.

In 2003, Nova Scotia students ranked ninth in the world in reading, ahead of students from Hong Kong, Germany, France and the United States.

The PIRLS assessment is conducted every five years and includes questionnaires for parents, teachers and principals, which help educators measure the impact of the home reading environment on literacy, as well as the level of classroom resources and time spent on reading in schools.

Results from this year's assessment will be released in December 2007.