In a world where knowledge is power, Canadians have plenty of muscle. And Albertans are particularly well-muscled — at least those Albertans who choose to stay in school.
But the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) raises some flags about the strength of Canada’s educational system.
And Albertans — particularly Central Albertans — should take note of the PISA report, as well as Statistics Canada information that profiles our educational well-being. The implications of dumbing down our youth, even by slight degrees, are too critical for us to simply shrug it off.
The cumulative effect of the analysis is disturbing: although still impressive, Canadian and Albertan test results are starting to fall, as is our international ranking; and too many Albertans are opting out of traditional schooling.
The PISA report (administered by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) shows that Canada, when measured against 65 other countries, remains an education leader. Based on standardized testing of 15-year-olds, Canada placed fifth in reading, seventh in science and eighth in mathematics.
When combined, those are heady results and show the relative strength of our education system.
For Alberta, the results are even better. Alberta students — the best among Canadians — were second only to those in Shanghai, China, when it came to reading skills. In science knowledge and skills, Albertans were again the best Canada has to offer and second worldwide. In mathematics, this province’s students were second in Canada and eighth when measured against students from around the world.
In comparative terms, Canada is also getting good results from a relatively modest investment. We spend significantly less per student than the United States and Great Britain, for example, and those two countries achieve results significantly below Canada’s.
There are concerns, however.
Across the board, Canada’s results have slipped in the last decade. In some provinces, the decline is dismaying. And there is growing gap between Canadian boys and girls when it comes to reading skills. The delivery of education to immigrants remains spotty. Francophone students outside Quebec and anglophone students inside Quebec generally fare worse than provincial averages.
And there are fewer Canadians at the top end: in 2000, 45 per cent of Canadians who wrote the reading test scored at the top; in 2009, those achieving excellence numbered 40 per cent.
Alberta Education Minister Dave Hancock expressed concern about declines in testing results and that “we still have work to do at the lower end of the scale.”
And, in the most disconcerting of cases, students are simply walking away from formal education.
According to Statistics Canada, school attendance for 15-to-19-year olds has peaked, somewhere in the 82 to 84 per cent range. There are dropout issues in rural areas in particular in Alberta, where one in five 20-to-24-year-olds did not complete high school and was no longer going to school; the urban dropout average in the province is one in 10.
According to the 2010 Vital Signs report, about 22 per cent of the population in the Red Deer region had not completed high school, which puts us two percentage points worse than the national average and four percentage points worse than the provincial average (but still a full 12 percentage points better than 20 years ago).
Most dropouts are young men. Nationally, according to Statistics Canada, the dropout rate for young men was 12.2 per cent in 2004-2005, compared with 7.2 per cent for young women.
In Alberta, that difficulty has been exacerbated in boom years by the lure of high-paying, low-skill jobs in the oilpatch.
In lean years, however, education becomes a critical factor in getting and keeping employment — and maintaining a decent income.
In Alberta in 2004-2005, dropouts were most likely employed, according to Statistics Canada.
Now, however, the employment picture is significantly different: the less educated you are, the more difficulty you will have getting a job and making a decent wage.
Local educators are well aware of the issue and are working to address it. The Red Deer Catholic School Division, for example, received commendation from the province recently for cutting its dropout rate to 2.4 per cent in 2009-2010 from 4.3 in 2008-2009.
But there is no simple fix. Education requires cash, commitment and continuity coast to coast.
But Canadians can’t afford to allow our international education standards to slip. If we do, we’ll end up being muscled off the top of the economic mountain.
John Stewart is the Advocate’s managing editor.