Creating a snapshot of how students are doing each year in areas of numeracy and literacy, and quickly turning that data around into meaningful change is a key priority for the Garden Valley School Division.

Recently released results of the Pan-Canadian Assessment Program (P-CAP) of reading, mathematics, and science, showed Manitoba grade 8 students scoring the lowest under the Canadian average for standardized testing. However, school divisions have no way of knowing how their participating students did, and the results from the P-CAP tests can take up to 3 years to receive. Not all grade 8 students participate, with only a select number from each division chosen to take the test.

Vern Reimer, superintendent of the Garden Valley School Division, says when it comes to how GVSD students are doing, the board zeros in on what they have control over.

"What we do is look at the goals that we have in our strategic plan, which are literacy, numeracy, and then, of course, Professional Learning Communities and that's teachers getting together to chat about teaching and learning."

Reimer says each fall and spring, GVSD students are tested on literacy and numeracy, which gives the division that control over knowing how their students are doing. The results are then disaggregated by student.

"And that's the great value of having that information by school, and by student, so that when teachers in the PLCs meet, they can talk exactly about, what do we need to do for these students by name," said Reimer. "That's one of the things we don't get from the provincial results on something like P-CAP."

"When we take that snapshot in fall, and we have teachers and literacy coordinators working together, real students, actual names, we can customize the learning so that we can create improvement for each child," added Reimer.

Reimer says when caparisons are being done worldwide, or across Canada with P-CAP, it's much harder to get that information back in a timely way.

Five years ago GVSD became very intentional about literacy in the early years, making it a priority in its strategic plan. Reimer says it was realized in 2012 that about 40 percent of their grade 1 and 2 students were reading at or above level. Since being very intentional about early years literacy, Reimer says positive results are definitely being realized. Literacy results from the fall of 2017, indicated 66 percent of grade 1 and 2 students were reading at or about level.

"So those percentage point gains are huge in terms of getting students off to a great start."

Meanwhile, despite Manitoba's P-CAP results, Reimer says there is still a celebration in some of the numbers.

"When I look at the reading numbers and see that, in Manitoba, 83 percent of the grade 8s are reading at or above level, that's great. On the other hand, if you compare that to the rest of Canada and see the other provinces are a little higher, yeah, there's room for growth."

When it comes to the comparisons, Reimer says there are a lot of variables to consider in the equation, like areas with a more concentrated population, like Quebec and Ontario. He says child poverty, the number of resources being put into education systems province by province are also other factors. "So when you're comparing things, it's best to compare all things."