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There Is No Joy In Mudville
The 2009 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) results were released yesterday. The big news is the stunning success of China whose students - despite the country's poverty and relatively low spending on education - scored higher than every other country in every category and by a convincing margin. Here are the highlights expressed in terms of Ontario students (scroll to the bottom).
Comparing the performance of Ontario students on this test with their performance three years ago on the 2006 test, their raw scores dropped 3 points in reading, stayed the same in math, and dropped 6 points in science. The combination of this drop in raw scores and the entrance of two very successful countries (China and Singapore) means that Ontario dropped from 5th place in reading to 6th place, from 10th place to 13th place in math, and from 5th place to 10th place in science.
Although the Ontario government is doing its best to put a positive spin on these results, it begins to look as if the Liberal government's education reform efforts are backfiring.
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