POSTED ON BEHALF OF DOUG

The OECD/PISA reports keep saying over and over the same thing, poverty and concentrations of poverty are at the root of America’s problems. They don’t like the message so they go on and on with failed experiments charter… vouchers… testing… that no successful nations rely on.

I think that the teachers unions are at the root of the problems—the unions want their teachers to do as little as possible.  One example, when the teachers strike, work days are never made up, nor if school is cancelled because of bad weather, or any other reason are classes made up for.  My worry (when I moved back to Canada with my kids) was that my children would learn this total lack of conscientious behavior toward their jobs that the teachers seem to have.  Furthermore, the children wouldn’t learn that when they left the union-run monopoly bubble that the real world would be waiting for them, and that the rules in the real world are very different.

ETHOS — What Happened?

We used to talk about the “ethos” of the school — the fundamental character or spirit of a school — the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, and practices of the school.

If the mission of this urban school was written down, and published, and if the parents and students had real choice, would they choose this school willingly?  A school that imparts “unemployment training” ?  EXIT and choice to a better school is the only solution.

If Effective Schools Principles were applied this school model would not exist.  Please see what I wrote about Jay P Greene’s post discussed yesterday and the proliferation of (untested) 21st Century Learning plans being currently discussed.

HARM PREVENTION — Are There Safeguards In Education Experiments?

As another fad takes off — promoting and measuring non-cognitive skills — are there safeguards in place?  Should we as a society even allow human experimentation on school children?  Where are the parents in all this?

In this discussion led by Jay P Greene on his blog about “Brilliant New Measure of Non-Cognitive Skills” I’m gratified that someone at last has mentioned the possibility that harm might occur.

Greg, in the comments on this story, says:  “Remember that Daniel Willingham paper on how much damage it does when we try to teach things that are not skills as if they were skills?” (See Internet —  Daniel Willingham damage)

It was in 1972 when I was shocked that the term “iatrogenic” was being applied to education in public schools.  Ivan Illich in Mexico was expounding on “deschooling” and said that just as there can be unintended harm from medical procedures, so could there be harm induced by schooling.

From this blog post by Jay Greene I was really surprised to learn that he is a professor — of education reform no less — and is promoting discussion of his students’ work on this tentative theory.

Why are people trying to play God?  There are quite a number of questionable proposals, policies and efforts — all in the guise of “needed” 21st Century Learning — that are really aimed at changing human nature through the medium of public schools. 

Now, we have this human capital proposal by Greene’s students to develop wholesale “conscientiousness”!

Both Jay P Greene and the student authors of this paper should become more aware, as Willingham no doubt has, of the Biblical caution:  James 3:1 — For you know that he who teaches will be judged with greater strictness.

On other blogs I’ve seen a few rare teachers comment about the seriousness they place on embracing their profession — and the James 3:1 stricture — acknowledging the harm they might do from teaching (or failure to teach) far beyond, say, engineering, law or medical missteps.

We need a lot more information about what is being discussed in the name of education reform.  There is a lot of activity, which is largely hidden from public view. And why, we should also get to know, is the “effective schools movement”— so promising for consumers (parents, students and taxpayers) — being sabotaged or abandoned by the producers (the education establishment)?

Please review the Effective Schools Checklist.  Would you (as parent, teacher, taxpayer, employer) be satisfied with this model today?
http://www.parentsteachingparents.net/2013/08/effective-schools-checklist/

PS:  I have just received a 1000 pg, 2 vol report (Int. Handbook on School Effectiveness and Improvement) and see already what some of the “establishment’s” griefs are.  Will report later.

Doug: You seem to have missed Dr Haberman’s point.  Public schools encourage and support these behaviors; it is their policies and protocols that are the problem.  It is not supportable for public schools to blame the parents, the community, society, or anyone else who happens to be standing around. 

Many charter schools challenge this culture of failure - most famously KIPP with their no-excuses focus on behavior and motivation. 

Here’s an op-ed from today’s Star about Ontario’s grading system, which should be read in light of Dr Haberman’s comments.  http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/08/23/ontarios_grading_guidelines_get_a_big_zero.html

Oh how the public education system keeps to the narrative. Blocking out all research that runs contrary to the narrative.

Two articles - The first one is all about conscientiousness.

Michael Graziano

Michael Graziano is a neuroscientist, novelist and composer. He is a professor of neuroscience at Princeton University. His latest book, Consciousness and the Social Brain, is out next month.

How consciousness works – Michael Graziano – Aeon
http://100pct.us/story/mind/how-consciousness-works—michael-grazian/34304d416f687a5137574f33464b41596a61796f7a413d3d

An interview - It’s all in our heads

Consciousness has long been the province of philosophers and mystics, but Michael Graziano is putting it in its scientific place.
http://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/06/heads.aspx

In the research work of the non-cognitive skills, Graziano is cited.

I found the paper called Unemployment Training (The Ideology of Non-Work Learned in Urban Schools),  I was nodding in agreement after each paragraph. A parent can easily connect the conversations with their children at home, sometimes heated discussions to the one liners of their children. “Teacher told me 51 % is good enough.”  Or the more common one, “We have a choice not to do the miss assignment or test.”

In the end, its a virus incubated by the schools that teaches students that receiving a grade 12 diploma is all about playing the games of the authoritative educators - that is to acquired an education that leads to a grade 12 diploma - one must learn the unwritten rules of least possible effort.

Sadly, as the author has concluded - “The dropout problem among urban youth–as catastrophic as it is–is less detrimental than this active training for unemployment.We need be more concerned for “successful” youth who graduate since it is they who have been most seriously infected.They have been exposed longest, practiced the anti-work behaviors for the longest period, and been rewarded most.In effect, the urban schools create a pool of youth much larger than the number of dropouts who we have labeled as “successful” but who have been more carefully schooled for failure.”

Successful is meant in the context, students who stay in school and acquired the grade 12 diploma and other certificates deemed by the public education authorities.

That said, students with the lower levels of reading, writing and numeracy will learned the ideologies of non-work very well indeed. An example, would be the new movie being release in October of 2013 -  documentary “Dislecksia: The Movie” theatrically in the U.S. throughout October in conjunction with National Dyslexia Awareness Month.”
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/topic/sns-201308050900reedbusivarietyn1200573936-20130805,0,2516450.story

The trailer - Just remember the dismal stat that is a global phenomenon in the public education schools - that only 4 to 6 % of LD students are considered successful students. Tossed in the other students with lower reading, writing and numeracy skills, what indeed are the students learning other then to prepare themselves to learned and master the set of ideologies under anti-conscientiousness.

http://variety.com/2013/film/news/dislecksia-the-movie-set-for-october-launch-1200573936/ 

Following Nancy’s note about only 4-6% of LD students are ‘successful’ (does anyone know where that claim comes from?), here’s a study that looked at HOW that group succeeds:  http://www.weber.edu/wsuimages/jmitchell/MEDUC 6000/Cognition LD.pdf

The claim is that successful reading-impaired college students have superior self-regulation and work longer hours compared to a similar group of successful normal students.  They are quicker to recognize that they need to ask for help.

I wonder if the culture of anti-conscientiousness - “active training for unemployment” - is particularly harmful to LD students.

POSTED ON BEHALF OF DOUG

I have no Idea how haberman got in here,

Tom you need to read more widely about Charters Tom without buying the reform talking points whole.

The OECD/Pisa says America does badly due to poverrty and concentrations of poverty. No ther nations allow that kind of poverty.

It is almost painfully naive that reformers attempt to deny the role of poverty. I guess because if they did not deny it, their whole blame teachers, blame unions thesis is ashes. The highly successful nations are highly unionized as are the successful American states.

It is not the problems of parents community and students. It is not their fault that they are poor but their poverty overwhelms their efforts. Read Ravitch, Darling Hammond Sahlberg, Ravitch’s new book this fall ought to put the final nail in the reform coffin.

Ever notice how nobody listens to the USA about education? It is because they are a basket case. Most charters fail as they did recently in NYC including KIPP. The ones that don’t fail are highly selective with their enrolment.

Part 1

Tom, the 4 to 6 % number are the number of LD students in the K to 12 education who are achieving at academic and advance levels, maintaining a B average or higher.

Successful LD students will developed and have higher levels of the soft skills compared to the non-LD students. However, it doesn’t come easy because there is a host of external environmental variables conspiring to keep LD students at the bottom of the achievement charts in the K to 12 system. There is another set of external environmental variables at play for the high achieving LD students, that conspires to sabotage and weakens the strengths of LD students.

The complexity is confounded by the biases and misconceptions that is held by the educators and the public. Its a well known fact in the LD research, that LD students who are successful academically, work 2 to 3 times harder then the non-LD students with better reading, writing and numeracy skills. The motivated LD student will compensate by working harder, by using compensatory strategies to overcome the reading deficits,  that elicits higher levels of self-regulation, persistent and innovative strategies that works for them.

An example and which is a very common example are the compensatory strategies used by students who find learning to read difficult. So what does a dyslexic child who has not been identified in the grade 1 class and the teacher insists that there is no reading and writing problem? Compensate by memorizing the words, as the number one strategy until the unidentified dyslexic student hits the grade 3 or grade 4 wall. The strategy of memorizing words will no longer work. How does the culture of anti-conscientiousness work against the primary students who have learning issues in the 3 Rs? The vast majority will take the easy route, and learn the rules of the least possible effort incubated by the culture of anti-conscientiousness in the schools.

The children who learned to read by memorizing words in the primary classes, research has shown this set of children are highly motivated to learn to read. This set of children don’t understand why they can’t learn to read as easily as the other classmates. The children are fighting the inner demons of ‘I am smart’ versus ‘I am dumb’ twins. Causes quite a conflict inside the minds of students with reading difficulties of any nature, and is compounded by the instructional practices and the misconceptions held by the educators. By the end of grade 3 most kids with reading difficulties have elected to take the easy route by playing the games of the anti-conscientiousness crowd at the school.

If a grade 1 class starts off with 12 students who are experiencing reading difficulties, by the end of grade 12 due to a complex set of variables at play inside the schools - only 5.6 percent of the 12 students consisting of non-LD and LD students are considered successful high achieving students. However there is more, that conspires against the LD students in the K to 12 setting, that keeps LD students working at 2 to 3 grade levels below then the non-LD students who had reading difficulties in the primary grades.

Some Canadian stats - “Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU)

Statistics compiled for 2006 – 2007 by the College Committee on Disability Issues:

  Students with learning disabilities made up 40.8% of students served by the offices for students with disabilities at Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology in Ontario
Students with learning disabilities represented 4.8 % of the total number of college students

2007-2008 statistics from MTCU (from Colleges and Universities Year End Reports)

  College students with learning disabilities 7,785   (10.1% increase over 5 yrs.)
  University students with learning disabilities       5,546   (17.9% increase over 5 yrs.)
  Total postsecondary students with LDs           13,331 (13.2% increase over 5 yrs.)
  Total postsecondary students with LDs or ADHD 16,551
  Students with LDs made up 2.24% of the total student population
  Students with LDs or ADHD made up 2.78% of the total student population”
http://www.ldao.ca/introduction-to-ldsadhd/ldsadhs-in-depth/articles/about-lds/learning-disabilities-statistics/

Part 2

The last few numbers is a damning indictment on the Canadian public education K to 12 and the education stakeholders. A damning indictment on the education policies, pedagogy practices, instruction practices, and curriculum. Tossed in the biases and misconceptions held by the public education system and the general public - its so much easier for children to employed strategies of ‘least possible effort’, then it is to applied effort, and be confronted with accusations by the very adults, that it was a fluke the kid was achieving.

Canada, could be considered the worst country in the developed countries for ensuring that the vast majority of LD students are kept at the bottom of the achievement chart. 

“It is an ideology which schools promulgate because it is easier to accede to the students’ street values than it is to shape them into more gentle human beings.The latter requires a great deal of persistent effort not unlike a dike working against an unyielding sea.It is much easier for urban schools to lower their expectations and simply survive with youth than it is to try to change them.”  http://educationviews.org/unemployment-training-the-ideology-of-non-work-learned-in-urban-schools/

Tom, dropped the students’ street values but that doesn’t mean LD students don’t have street values. Its another variable at play. LD students need a great deal of persistence effort by educators to transformed the LD students to high achieving students. Its so much easier for the public education system to accept the deficits of the students, and even easier to lower the expectations, than to change LD students. The education policies and practices clearly shows in Canada, the public education have taken the easy route by not providing the education services and resources for LD students to be successful in school.  The data streams are the dismal outcomes of the LD students.

Nancy: useful links, but I still didn’t find where that 4% - 6% number came from.  I followed a few documents until I found a similar statistic from the US that I can dig to the source:

“Sixty-six percent of secondary students with LD are reading 3 or more grade levels behind. Almost one in four is reading 5 or more grade levels behind. Achievement gaps in math are similar.”  http://www.ncld.org/images/content/files/ncld-situational-analysis-2012.pdf

Completely agree with your commentary.

Thank you Tom and Malkin in your continued efforts to keep us apprised of what is happening in America.  It is horrible.  Absolutely a cautionary tale.  That is a path that leads to nowhere. 

Should we organize some sort of relief effort?  Partner with a school community there and send resources and consumables?  Many of the schools where I have landed had done this sort of partnership with schools in Africa.

Mirka

Mirka - the relief effort should first take place in Canada. The Canadian schools keeps pumping out grade 12 graduates who are not making the grade.

In the Canadian 2012 report -  State of the Literacy and Essential Skills - “The majority of jobs in Canada require at least IALS Level 3 literacy skill, yet 43% of all students leaving Canada’s high schools still do so with
Level 1 and 2 skills. Some students obtain their grade 12 diploma but don’t have the skills that the level of education implies. About 10% of high school students don’t graduate.”
http://www.literacy.ca/content/uploads/2012/12/State-of-the-Field-2012.pdf

Ten years ago, the figure was 33 %. The Canadian K to 12 education system, is doing a smashing job trying to keep up with the American education system,  pumping out grade 12 graduates with low skills in and around the 54 %.

If you take the time to read the report, there is major economic and social implications. One that was not mentioned, but since 2013 has become another problem where Canadians are completing against foreign workers, for the low and high skilled jobs. There is no contest for employers who are offering low skilled jobs. The foreign worker is selected because they have a solid foundation in the 3 Rs, and in particular their numeracy skills. 

But I supposed its just ducky dory for the public education stakeholders,  because the Canadian students have been well-trained in the ideology of Anti-Conscientiousness. The public education system in its wisdom, have already prepare the basic adult education courses for all the adults who left high school with below average levels in literacy and essential skills. The only problem is, governments are being cheap about it and the Supreme Court of Canada is sticking their nose in the public education system, and telling them to shape up.

Another damning indictment of the inconvenient facts that the public K to 12 education system would like to ignore.

I Agree with Nancy:  charity begins at home.

Bev, you are correct -charity should begin at home - and for a group purporting to work on behalf of Canadian students so should the focus.

Nancy,  I scanned the report that Tunya reported a link to.  I was particularly trying to reconcile the factoid both you and Tunya quote, ’ that 43% of high school graduates leave with a level 1 or 2 literacy level’.  I was looking for the author’s methodology that lead to the 43% number in the context of the Ontario Literacy test.  Ontario students in order to graduate must meet the level three requirement.  Nancy or Tunya if you could be so kind to explain how the 43% number was derived?

Does Quebec have some sort of exit literacy requirement as well?  How about Alberta and BC? 

Honestly - simply puzzled at the 43% number.

best.  Mirka

Hello Nancy,

In your post above you express concern that our students will not be able to compete globally.

The 2009 PISA results - comparing results among 30 democracies in the world should offer some comfort.  Here is a bit of the summary from the Ontario School Board Association:

◾Canadian students continue to be leaders in reading, math and science.

◾Canadian students perform well in a global context in reading. On the combined reading scale, only four countries surpassed Canada: Shanghai-China, Korea, Finland and Hong Kong-China.

◾Nine of the Canadian provinces performed at or above the OECD average on the combined reading scale.

◾There was no significant change in Canadian mean performance in reading from 2000 and 2009. However, only one country outperformed Canada in reading in 2000, while three countries outperform Canada in 2009 (meaning the relative performance decreased).

While there is always room for improvement the sky is not falling.  Mirka

Mirka - its the Ontario Literacy Test - even my dyslexic child would have passed it - just barely - but still passed. Nevertheless, the worth of any standard testing, is to provide remediation for all students who have failed and other students even through they passed just barely, are in obvious need of reading and writing instruction.
http://www.eqao.com/Students/Secondary/10/10FAQ.aspx?Lang=E&gr=10

The Ontario Literacy test is to meet the requirement of receiving an Ontario grade 12 diploma. If a student does not meet it, they simply don’t received an Ontario grade 12 diploma. Its the same way for provinces who have exit exams, normally called public exams. If a student fails one of the publics, no high school diploma will be awarded. Although, there is second, third and even fourth chances to retake the public exam for a price of $100 or so. In NL, the publics are worth 50 % of the final grade average and I was chewing nails when my youngest took the grade 12 English public.  She took my advice, write what you know best. She wrote about learning disabilities and how schools don’t do anything about it and compared it to the Stone Angel and the character, Hagar with her beefs. I am quite sure, the markers probably never had quite an essay tearing down the education system comparing it to Hagar in the Stone Angel.

My point is, students with weaker reading and writing skills have a very difficult time to expressed themselves on paper, and more so in the senior high school grades. What do you expect from a public education K to 12 system, that no longer teaches grammar, spelling, writing mechanics, and as for math, algorithms, long division, fractions and square roots. Its why the private tutoring concerns have waiting lists.

This dropped in my e-mail box today. It comes from WISE - a new member who just happened to be a new teacher. “I am a new teacher, graduated 2012, and working in an adult literacy center and it is unsatisfactory to see such a large percentage of adults who do not have their basic math skills. Seeing this in grown adults makes me fearful of our current youth who are not retaining their basics as well. Things need to change.”

Dropped into the adult literacy centres across the country. Dropped into the adult basic education schools. Dropped into the adult education centres funded by federal and provincial dollars. Dropped into the private and public colleges to see the classrooms packed year in and year out, for adult students striving to capture the prize, a grade 12 diploma and not a certificate. One needs a grade 12 diploma, and not a certificate if one wants to applied for post-secondary. More importantly, the common theme among the adult education and literacy centres, its not the knowledge that the adult students are lacking, but the skills in the 3 Rs are badly in need of repair. Some would say, it was never taught to the adult students in 12 years of schooling, and I am inclined to agree.

When you are out exploring the private tutors, note the main tutoring is addressing the 3 Rs of the students. Its well over a 2 billion dollar industry in Canada, and you seriously question the 43 % number? Check out the other literacy organizations across Canada, the same type of numbers will popped up. A 2008 OECD report partnering with StatsCanada. Huge report,  but I did find the numbers for Canada.  Canadians with level 3 and above in literacy stands at 56%. For numeracy levels at level 3 or above stands at 50 %. So the numbers for Canadians at level 2 or below stands at 44 % and 50 % respectively.
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89-604-x/89-604-x2011001-eng.pdf

Even more bad news, the major literacy organizations across Canada, that low literacy levels are on the rise, and are probably at the 48 % mark. And the public education K to 12 system and the stakeholders are wearing their blinders, ignoring the big elephants in the education classroom. Eleven million Canadians without the required literacy and numeracy skills, and we don’t have a problem?

The Conference Board of Canada - seems to think there is a problem. “Four out of ten Canadian adults have literacy skills too low to be fully competent in most jobs in our modern economy. ”  http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/details/education/adult-literacy-rate-low-skills.aspx

It must be the ideology of Anti-Conscientiousness doing double time spreading the virus throughout society, by ignoring the data streams of low literacy and numeracy levels of Canadians. Must be a profit maker for the public education system…...........and I stand corrected, it is no longer 11 million adults with low literacy and numeracy skills, it is almost 12 million adults using the latest population count of Canada.

Diane McGuinness describes how countries ‘cheat’ on international tests, and calls out Canada as one of the leading cheaters in PISA 2000 in a category called ‘exclusion’.  (McGuinness, D. (2004).  Early Reading Instruction.  Bradford/MIT Press). 

“Exclusion rates refer to children in the population who cannot be tested because of mental retardation, being blind or deaf, and so forth.  The guidelines were “The percentage of 15-year-olds excluded within schools had to be less than 2.5 percent of the nationally desired target population.”  The last part was in boldface type.  This section of the report also expressly stated that “special education” was not a criterion for exclusion.”  (McGuinness, 2004, pp 350).

Our exclusion rate in 2000 was 4.9%, a rascal non-conforming figure only outpaced by Luxembourg and Poland.

In 2009, Canada’s exclusion rate was even further outside the boundary, hitting a charlatan level of 6%.  http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-590-x/2010001/tbl/tbla1.1-eng.htm 

You can see how we stand on compliance in the international tables for 2009 at http://www.namsmat.is/vefur/rannsoknir/PISA_skyrslur_almennt/pisa2009_ERA.pdf pp236 We remain one of the worst offenders.

So yes, we should count on again being in the top performers in 2012.  We simply exclude kids with dyslexia and dyscalculia.

POSTED ON BEHALF OF DOUG

You are exactly right, Mirka.

Canada is 4th but Shanghai China and HK are not countries. In Shanghai 80% go to post secondary but in PRC China as a whole it is 20%. HK is a totally artificial construction far above Chinese standards.

Really only Finland and Korea are in Canada’s league. Korea achieves by augmenting its public system with a 5 hour private tutorial system at night.

Finland has the world’s best 15 year old readers and the only test is at the very end.

Canada has the world’s highest % of post secondary grads and is the only nation over 50% on this Earth. For some reason, when Nancy and Bev and Tunya read this data they don’t seem happy about it. They never seem to quote it?

Ontario has been ranked by many as the best system in the English speaking world.

I’m happy about this outstanding achievement but our friends here can’t seem to celebrate Canada’s success.

Doug, it would not take much to outpaced the other English speaking countries considering some of the advantages that Canada has. A vast country that is not funded by federal dollars. Ten provinces as opposed to the American states. Given the exclusion rate for Canada, its rather easy to cheat for the education officials considered the PISA processes creates the conditions for countries like Canada to do so, and still meet the standards of the PISA test. It can seen as one half of the class taking a test without the use of books, notes and other tools versus the other half who have the books, their notes and tools on the identical test.

China does it all the time. Actually in places like Shanghai, there is two kind of students. and two kinds of schools. Where 40 % of the population in Shanghai has the top level of citizenship and rights. One of the rights is the right to attend the public schools where all other students have the same first-tiered citizenship and rights. The remaining 60 % of the population in Shanghai are the domestic migrant workers who required permits and permission to work and lived in the city of Shanghai. The migrant worker children, have their own separate school system, where the migrant worker children will received minimum education services that will allow them to acquire the skills to become workers at the age of 14 or so. The permits and rights of the migrants in Shanghai, can at anytime be revoke by the state officials.

Given the above, the migrant schools in Shanghai do not participate in PISA, but can participate in the state testing that is required for admission into high schools. But most don’t for obvious reasons, because they are already working and precious few can afford the fees at the high school level.

The overall education levels - 20 % of Chinese students go unto university. Another 20 % attend the technical colleges and second-tiered universities. All students from both cohorts have first-tiered citizenship and rights. Once the 1.3 billion population is taken into account, China simply outpaces every other country due to the sheer size of their population. India is another country with a huge population of 1.2 billion but with a different system - produces the same numbers. Only 40 % of the India students graduate from high school,  where 60 % of students leave the education system, to work as general labourers. In India, the rise of the private schools for the poor is popular because the kids are actually being educated rather then being warehoused in the public schools of India. Not my words, but the words of reports in the New York Times.

There is not much to celebrate in the Canadian education system, especially when one is looking at the outcome data streams, beyond the PISA.

Nancy

Your response to my query does not answer the issue.

Both you and Tunya quote the Canadian 2012 Literacy report: “State of Literacy and Essential Skills”, and the factoid that 43% of graduates are below level 3 in literacy skills. 

The organization that published that report has its standards aligned with the ministries of education.  Which means level three in Ontario is the same level of proficiency that the literacy council speaks of.

So again, how can the Canadian number for low literacy rates be so high if Ontario has a graduation literacy requirement of level three?
Ontario is the largest jurisdiction in Canada.  Something is not right.

please advise.  Mirka

“So again, how can the Canadian number for low literacy rates be so high if Ontario has a graduation literacy requirement of level three?
Ontario is the largest jurisdiction in Canada.  Something is not right.”

Its very simple Mirka. Ontario like the other provinces, do not keep track and/or collect data on the reading,writing and numeracy state of students. The EQAO, like other standard testing does not measure the reading and writing skills. The assumption at play is the reading and writing skills are in place for all students taking the test. But what happens when the students do not have the required reading and writing skills in place to write a standardized test?  No standardized test will confirmed that the student has fluency reading problems. No standardized test will confirmed that the child has weak skills in the mechanics of writing.

One needs reading and writing assessments that actually measures the basic skills in reading and writing. On the Wrightslaw site - “There are two important realities in testing. Tests do not always measure what they appear to measure, and not all tests measure reading, writing, and math skills comprehensively.”
http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/test.read.farrall.htm

The ones listed in the Wrightslaw article, are the comprehensive reading and writing assessments, and not very useful for the classroom educator who would need to acquire the qualifications to administered the tests.

Do Canadian classroom educators have the resources and the training to assess their students in assessing basic reading and writing skills, like the paper entitled Teaching Reading Is Rocket Science has outlined? - http://www.aft.org/pdfs/teachers/rocketscience0304.pdf

How would any Canadian classroom educator without assessing and measuring the basic skills in reading and writing, would be able to determined the reading and writing skills of each student?  Pretty impossible without assessing the basic skills, to determined the reading and writing gaps of their students.

Returning to your question,  how can the Canadian number for low literacy rates be so high if Ontario has a graduation literacy requirement of level three?  Its elementary, the Ontario Literacy test is measuring different elements in literacy, that allows the majority of students to obtained a level 3 or higher the first time around, that masks the basic reading and writing deficits and gaps of students.

So yes, a student with word decoding difficulties, having an average grade average B +  could score a 3, where as a D- student could score a level 4 to an A student who failed the literacy test. Does it really measure literacy skills?  Or is it just another standard test that is a requirement to obtained the grade 12 diploma? 

In a report called Literacy Matters: A Call For Action - “Yet these standings mask significant problems that demand serious attention. Almost forty percent of Canadian youth do not have adequate literacy levels. Adults fare worse. Close to half have inadequate prose and document literacy skills. More than half fall short in numeracy skills. Discrepancies exist across regions, gender and socio-economic class. Great divides have also emerged between rural and urban as well as Canadian-born and immigrant populations.”  http://www.td.com/document/PDF/economics/special/td-economics-special-literacy0907.pdf

The literacy tests used to determined the 43 % are: “these correspond to the levels used in the benchmark International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey (IALSS).”
The above link will provide the basics along with the Canada data for both youth and adults.

In October of 2013, a new report will be released by StatsCanada - Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). It will measured a number of items, including literacy.
http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=4406&Item_Id=132267&lang=en

The key question to asked what are the tests truly measuring and the second one, will it masked the deficits in reading and writing. I leave off with another warning in 2011, “In a nutshell, Cappon says Canada is falling behind in multiple areas: 42 per cent of Canadians perform under level three literacy in international tests; there is no co-ordination between the provinces, levels of government, institutions, and the private and public sectors on learning needs; national data collection is poor; and there is no national education quality assurance. “
http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/11/09/Canadian-Council-On-Learning/

There is also another set of data streams that indicates lower literacy and numeracy skills for the cohort group aged 18 to 35. I shall leave that for another day.

Tom - good point, not to mention that some of those international tests routinely lower the bar.