Alberta students rank near top nationally

Alberta’s 15-year-old students remain among Canada’s strongest performers in international testing, although the latest results also show a significant decline in reading and lower scores in all three subjects compared with earlier assessments.

Results from the 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment, released Sept. 8, gave Alberta an average score of 520 in science, 499 in reading and 489 in mathematics.

Those results placed Alberta first among provinces in science and reading and second in mathematics behind Quebec, according to the provincial government.

Alberta scored above the Canadian averages of 510 in science, 490 in reading and 485 in mathematics. It was also above Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development averages in all three subjects.

“These outstanding results show Alberta students continue to excel on the world stage,” Education and Childcare Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said.

“They are a testament to the hard work of students, teachers, families and school communities across our province.”

PISA assesses how well 15-year-old students can apply their knowledge in science, reading and mathematics. It is generally conducted every three years rather than annually and does not test every student.

More than 760,000 students from 83 countries and eight additional economies participated in 2025, including approximately 24,600 Canadian students from close to 900 schools.

Alberta recorded the highest provincial point score in science, but the Canadian report said Alberta, Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec shared the top standing because differences between their scores were not statistically significant.

The rankings also tell only part of the story.

Alberta’s reading score fell by 26 points from 2022 and by 33 points from 2018. Both declines were statistically significant.

The percentage of Alberta students performing below the baseline reading proficiency level increased from 14.8 per cent in 2022 to 21.2 per cent in 2025. At the same time, the proportion of high-performing readers fell from 18.9 to 12.3 per cent.

Alberta’s science score fell from 541 in 2015 to 520 in 2025, a statistically significant decline. The score was also 14 points lower than in 2022, although the Canadian report said science performance remained statistically stable when compared with the two most recent assessments.

The province’s mathematics score declined from 504 in 2022 to 489 in 2025. That 15-point difference was not considered statistically significant because of the assessment’s margin of error.

The declines occurred amid a broader downturn in student performance. Canada recorded its lowest PISA results to date in all three subjects, while average reading and mathematics scores also fell across OECD countries.

The Canadian report cautioned that Alberta’s results should be interpreted carefully because participation rates did not meet all PISA technical standards.

Statistics Canada found no evidence of bias at the school level, but identified the possibility of a small upward bias caused by student non-participation. The OECD nevertheless determined that the Canadian and Alberta data were suitable for inclusion.

The published results do not provide school-level or school-division scores, meaning they cannot be used to determine how students at Crowsnest Consolidated High School or across Livingstone Range School Division performed.

During a rural media round table Sept. 10, Nicolaides was asked whether PISA results could be separated to compare rural and urban students.

“Unfortunately, I haven’t seen a breakdown of our PISA results split between urban and rural,” Nicolaides said.

He said the assessment’s sample would include students from rural and urban communities, but he did not know whether the results could be separated and promised to ask ministry staff.

Livingstone Range’s 2026-30 education plan identifies academic excellence as one of its three priorities. The division plans to develop literacy and numeracy frameworks intended to strengthen foundational skills across its schools.

The PISA results provide a positive comparison with other provinces and countries, but without a rural breakdown, they offer no direct measure of whether students in Crowsnest Pass are sharing equally in that success.