1 Introduction

This report on the 1995 British Columbia Assessment of Mathematics and Science (BCAMS) presents findings regarding student achievement results, student background and attitude, and teacher questionnaire results.

1.1 Background and Purpose of the Assessment

The 1995 British Columbia Assessment of Mathematics and Science was initiated by the Ministry of Education to address a number of questions related to student attitudes and achievement in mathematics and science, and to examine the classroom practices and perceptions of teachers of these subjects. Included in the design of the assessment was provision for the reporting of results at school, district, and provincial levels. This feature was a major departure from the design of provincial assessments in recent years, where results have been produced at the provincial level only. For the reporting aspect of the study, it was a return to the reporting levels of earlier assessments.

The timing of the assessment provided a unique opportunity to combine achievement items from earlier assessments with achievement items from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). This feature allowed not only for potential comparisons of change in student achievement over time, but also for comparisons with national and international results. Given that the ministry plans to introduce curriculum changes in these subject areas, the assessment's timing offered an opportunity to collect baseline student achievement data in mathematics and science.

1.2 Organization and Scope

The assessment was an ambitious undertaking for several reasons. First, the assessment included two major subject areas in a single study; second, there were free-response achievement items that were coded on three aspects (correctness, method or approach, and misconception or error type); third, relationships between classroom practices and student achievement were examined; and, fourth, there was an extremely short timeline for the development and implementation of the assessment.

1.2.1 The Combination of Two Subjects

As in previous provincial assessments, information on student outcomes and teaching practices was collected at three levels of the system: Grades 4, 7, and 10. However, this assessment differed significantly from previous assessments in that, for the first time, two major subject areas&endash;mathematics and science&endash;were included in the same assessment. This assessment therefore presented several challenges in the development and design of instruments, as well as in their administration. For example, in order to gain sufficient curriculum coverage for two subjects, the number of rotated forms and the form lengths were increased for Grades 4 and 7, and the amount of time required of students in those grades was increased from 60 to 90 minutes. The amount of time required for Grade 10 students was intended to be just under one hour, so that the assessment could be completed in one class period in most secondary schools. Form design and administration at the Grade 10 level proved to be a complex undertaking because item sets and their analyses had to take into account three categories: Mathematics 10, Mathematics 10A, and Science 10.

1.2.2 Timelines and Related Issues

The timeline for this assessment was considerably shorter than usual in that there were only 10 months to design the assessment, develop and administer the instruments, and report the results. A provincial assessment of this magnitude normally requires a period of about two years from its planning stage to its reporting phase. Fortunately, it was possible to save considerable time through the use of achievement items from earlier assessments and from TIMSS. Development began in February 1995 and the assessment instruments were administered during the last two weeks of May 1995. Due to the timeline requirements associated with this project, several relational analyses could not be carried out.

1.3 Questions Addressed by the Assessment

A large-scale assessment of this nature is intended to address a wide range of issues related to the teaching and learning of various subjects or disciplines. Among the general purposes of provincial assessments are the following:

• to provide information to educators and the public about the educational development of students, and compare student performance over time
• to relate student performance to classroom practice
• to provide models of exemplary assessment practices and administration
• to develop assessment procedures and scoring strategies which may provide information to guide the development of future provincial assessments
• to develop District Assessment Packages for district use
• to assist in validating the structure of reference sets
• to inform curriculum
• to provide accountability to the public (Ministry of Education, 1995)

In addition to the above general purposes, this assessment dealt with the following questions regarding the teaching and learning of mathematics and science:

• What are the achievement levels of students in mathematics and science at Grades 4, 7, and 10?
• How has achievement in mathematics and science changed over time?
• What attitudes and perceptions do students hold toward mathematics and science?
• What perceptions do teachers hold toward the teaching of mathematics and science, and what classroom practices do they employ?
• What relationships exist between classroom practices and student achievement?
• What educational recommendations can be made to the province, school districts, and schools on the teaching and learning of mathematics and science?
• What directions for educational research come out of the findings?

   

1.4 Structure of the Report

The 1995 British Columbia Assessment of Mathematics and Science Technical Report presents an overview of the state of teaching and learning mathematics and science in the schools of the province. It describes some of the characteristics of the Grades 4, 7, and 10 students who participated in the assessment, and focusses on their achievement in mathematics and science, and on their attitudes and opinions about their learning experiences and about a variety of contemporary topics related to mathematics and science. This report also describes the teachers of these students and presents some of their opinions and attitudes about topics relevant to the teaching and learning of mathematics and science.

The majority of the chapters in this report contain the data, and the interpretations of those data, obtained as a result of the 1995 assessment; however, Chapter 2 first addresses the technical aspects of the assessment: the assessment organization and design; the development, nature, and administration of the assessment instruments; and the people who participated in the assessment. Chapter 3 describes the students who participated in the assessment and discusses their attitudes and opinions. Chapters 4 and 5 report the results on the multiple-choice achievement items for the two subjects, and the three grades, covered in this assessment. Chapter 4 reports the mathematics results, and Chapter 5 the science results. The relationship between a number of background and attitude variables and students' achievement in mathematics and science is the subject of Chapter 6. How achievement has changed since the 1990 Provincial Mathematics Assessment and the 1991 Provincial Science Assessment is the subject of Chapter 7. Chapter 8 provides a synopsis of the results on the free-response items for both subjects. Chapters 9 and 10 are devoted to the teachers of the assessment and summarize the results from the teacher questionnaires. The report concludes with Chapter 11 and a recapitulation of the major findings and recommendations of the assessment. An appendix constitutes the last section of the report.

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