Questions raised as audit finds Nova Scotia not making full use of student test data

Nova Scotia’s auditor general says the province lacks clear targets for student performance and an action plan to address poor test results, as students continue to face challenges in reading, writing, and math.

Kim Adair’s latest report, released Tuesday, reviews provincial student assessments. The standardized tests are conducted by the Department of Education in Grades 3, 6, and 8.

“Provincial assessment results over the past four years show persistent challenges in writing and math outcomes have consistently declined as students move through elementary to junior high. Reading results remain relatively stable,” Adair said.

Specifically, the report points out “writing results remain very low in Grade 3  and Grade 6.”

For the 2024-25 school year, 43 per cent of Grade 3 students in the province met expectations in writing. For Grade 6 students, 49 per cent met expectations, which was a drop from 55 per cent in the previous year.

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For math, 77 per cent of Grade 3 students met expectations in the 2024-25 school year. Only 54 per cent met expectations in Grade 8.

The report finds the department spent $700,000 in 2024-25 to administer and mark provincial assessments, but Adair says the department hasn’t been using the results to inform its decisions.

“Given the significant public resources and time invested every year, it’s important the department applies this information to make decisions and make changes,” she said, adding that the test results offer “good data” and “good information.”

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The AG report makes 11 recommendations, largely focused around linking the results to action from the department. There are also recommendations to make the testing results more easily accessible on the department’s website.

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“We expected to see measurable targets, they are what I would (call) soft targets — like improvement,” said Adair.

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“We’re recommending that they set specific targets at the RCE level. And then, to achieve those targets, what actions do we need to take in order to get there?”

Adair says her team chose two regional centres for education (RCEs) to focus on: the Tri-County Regional Centre for Education and Strait Regional Centre for Education.

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She adds the approaches may differ depending on the RCE, and that different RCEs can share ideas and best practices.

“We do make the observation that the two RCEs we looked at … they had different methods of allocating the literacy and math resources. And again, we see positive results, or more positive results out of Tri County,” she said.

“So that’s the type of thing that we’re seeing: look at the practices, region to region, learn from them, share, and maybe use what’s working in one, as it might be applicable in another.”

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She says she’s spoken to the Department of Education, which has agreed to implement the report’s recommendations.

But Claudia Chender, the leader of the official Opposition, says the review raises serious questions about the government’s approach to education.

“I think most of the recommendations in this report are things that any reasonable parent would assume was already happening. That we’re measuring the test results, that we can use them to inform future progress and investment,” she said.

The report notes that the target implementation dates, which were agreed to by the Department of Education, range from January 2027 to September 2028.