The Pan-Canadian Assessment Program (grade 8 students)

The Pan-Canadian Assessment Program (PCAP) is now administered every 4 years to a representative sample of grade 8 English, French immersion, and French first language students. Previous to 2023 it was administered every 3 years. While each administration includes reading, math, and science, the major domain changes with each assessment. The major domain in 2023 was science, in 2019 mathematics and in 2016 reading was the major domain. The PCAP complements existing assessments in each province and territory. It provides information about whether grade 8 students across Canada reach similar levels of performance in reading, mathematics, and science. Accompanying PCAP questionnaires for students, teachers, and schools provide jurisdictions with contextual information that contributes to the interpretation of the performance results and an understanding of the factors that influence learning. The results of PCAP administrations are available at cmec.ca.

The next administration of PCAP will be in 2027 and the major area of focus will be reading.