SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

The amazing education gap disappearing trick

Neil Reynolds has a very different take on the PISA results in today’s Globe and Mail.  Readers will recall that it was widely reported that Canada did much better than the U.S.  Malkin posted on this back in December.  Reynolds looks at demographic differences between the U.S. and Canada to explain the disparities, which according to him, are not that big.  Before Canada pats itself on the back, Reynolds analysis is sobering.

The “education gap” is a myth if you take into account racial and/or social background says Reynolds.  From the comments on the Globe website following his column, this is sure to be controversial.  (However readers should note, the Toronto District School Board is keeping track of demographic information, which when the board announced its intention, was also controversial.)  

         “This gap disappears entirely, however, when the scores are adjusted for demographic differences between the two countries. As it happens, white American students scored 525, one point higher than Canadian students. Asian-American students scored 541. But black American students scored 466, and Hispanic students 466. These scores reflect (among many other intractable causes) a widespread and lamentable indifference to formal education in the two most significant American subcultures. Blacks make up 12 per cent of the U.S. population, Hispanics 15 per cent. Asians make up only 5 per cent.

         “Officially, Canada doesn’t count people in this way. We count “visible minorities.” But our visible minorities are much different than American visible minorities. In this country, blacks account for only 2.5 per cent of the population and aboriginals 4.5 per cent (combined, 7 per cent). Asian Canadians account for 11 per cent. Thus, one high-score demographic more than cancels out one low-score demographic in Canada. New Zealand (PISA score: 521) and Australia (515) are two other mostly white English-speaking countries with essentially identical PISA scores as Canada.”

The Washington Post commented further:

          The most pessimistic view of the [PISA] study is that, on average, American schools do as good a job as schools in other wealthy nations” - when educating similar students. On this basis, it’s probable that most U.S. students are doing slightly better than most Canadian students.

And not even one mention of Finland…