Part 2 — PERFORMANCE OF SUBGROUPS - Community Size Differences
Community Size Differences

Results were compared for students living in communities containing over 100,000 people (main centres), communities containing 10,000 to 100,000 people (provincial cities), and communities containing less than 10,000 people (rural areas). Both the year 4 and 8 samples across the first four years averaged 56 percent of students in main centres, 26 percent in provincial cities, and 18 percent in the rural areas.

The first data column shows the percentage of tasks on which there were no statistically significant differences in student performance according to community size. The second data column shows the percentage of tasks on which statistically significant differences occurred in relation to community size.
Community Size Differences: Year 4
Subject
=
Diff
Science
97
3
Art
100
0
Graphs/Tables
96
4
Music
90
10
Technology
100
0
Reading
100
0
Speaking
92
8
Info. Skills
100
0
Social Studies
100
0
Mathematics
98
2
Listening
88
12
Viewing
100
0
Health
92
8
Physical Educ.
96
4
Writing
100
0
Average
97
3
Community Size Differences: Year 8
Subject
=
Diff
Science
97
3
Art
100
0
Graphs/Tables
96
4
Music
90
10
Technology
100
0
Reading
100
0
Speaking
92
8
Info. Skills
100
0
Social Studies
100
0
Mathematics
98
2
Listening
100
0
Viewing
93
7
Health
100
0
Phys. Ed.
91
9
Writing
93
7
Average
97
3
   
Comment These analyses of task performance relative to community size show that differences are quite small across all curriculum subjects. This suggests that size of population in the areas where schools are located has little bearing on student learning outcomes.