A group of Grade 10 students at Nanaimo District Secondary School are participating in an international assessment of how Canada's education system stacks up against other countries.
Canadian high school students have participated in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA), which happen every three years, since it began in 2000.
It aims to evaluate education systems by testing 15-year-old students in participating countries.
This year, a group of NDSS students will join a random sampling of students across Canada in writing the assessments.
"I think it's exciting that they are part of this study," said Lisa Peace, a vice-principal at NDSS. "It helps us determine how we're fitting worldwide and it helps us prepare students for the future."
The tests focuses on reading, math and science, and results are only released at the provincial and national levels.
Peace said about 35 NDSS students will write the English version on May 9. A week later, about a dozen of the school's Francophone students will write the French language version.
Student participation in the assessment is optional.
B.C. students scored well above average in reading, math and science compared to their peers around the world in the 2009 assessment.
Peace said the paper exams will take up the morning and a selection of the students will also write computer-based assessments in the afternoon.
NDSS is the only school from the district participating this year, Peace added, and one of about a dozen schools on the Island participating.
Donna Reimer, school district spokeswoman, said she only knows of one district school selected in 2009 – Ladysmith Secondary School – while Dover Bay, John Barsby, Ladysmith, NDSS and Woodlands participated in 2006.