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Mostly harmful education reporting
Here’s a recent article from The Globe and Mail that shows what we’re up against. Written by the Globe’s middle east correspondent, the piece looks at Shanghai’s crushing win on the latest PISA international comparison of student achievement and concludes that, while the students may have trounced all the other countries on the PISA, they come up short when it comes to creativity and independence. Of course, like most education reporters, the author is a generalist and he makes some incorrect assumptions. Here are two that leapt out at me.
- The author assumes that the PISA tests basic skills and knowledge, but it actually tests whether “students are prepared for future challenges…. can analyze, reason, and communicate effectively…. have the capacity to continue learning throughout life”. PISA
- The author correctly explains that if China had been tested as a whole, the average would have been much lower - because Shanghai has one of the best education systems in the country. He then goes on to suggest that “Toronto or Calgary might have had equally good or better test scores”. Maybe Calgary could have, although I highly doubt it, but it is laughable to think that Toronto, which actually scores below average on Ontario’s provincial tests (public board, Catholic board) could have beaten Shanghai.
We desperately need more education reporters who know what they are writing about. Until such time, education leaders have carte blanche to continue pulling the wool over the public’s eyes about the importance of higher-order thinking and creativity - and the relative unimportance of basic skills and knowledge.
Too bad someone from SQE couldn’t be an education reporter… It’s only part-time.