Canada Ranks: Feeding Frenzy

International Student Assessment Dept: Canada ranks in the middle of lots of things, except perhaps hockey, the Winter Olympics and now, education. Last month, the media had a feeding frenzy over the release by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD of the results of their Program for International Student Assessment PISA . The big story was the prominence of Asian countries on the top-10 list. What the media elsewhere overlooked was the strong performance of Canada, according to The Star. Strictly speaking, though, the OECD concentrated not on the whole of Canada but on just one province: Ontario. In a video promotion of PISA s policy implications, the OECD s change guru, Andres Schleicher, praises Canada for its positive approach to immigration that is evident in narrow achievement gaps between students from different social backgrounds. Then, without explanation, he switches to Ontario. It s as if Ontario stands for all of Canada and last year, I was driving through Toronto when I spied a bumper sticker ahead. It didn t proclaim God Bless Canada or even Proud to be Canadian. It simply said Content to be Canadian! That s Canada in a nutshell. Canada scores quite well but not spectacularly on a range of international indicators: 8th in human development, 25th most equal, 14th least corrupt, and characteristically half way on UNICEF s index of child well-being. Canada ranked 6th overall, and the OECD picked out Canada as one of four strong performers and successful reformers. As reported in the news.
@t development oecd, achievement gaps