http://www.universityaffairs.ca/images/BlogLeo_en.jpgBy Léo Charbonneau. The OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA, released today the results of its fifth survey of the competencies of 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics and science (with a particular focus on mathematics this time around) in 65 countries and economies. The 2012 survey tested over half a million students, including 21,000 Canadians from 900 schools. It’s a heck of a lot of data to wade through and no doubt policy analysts will be doing just that for weeks, combing through the results in detail and pondering their implications. How did Canada do? It depends on who you ask. According to the Council of Ministers of Education Canada, this latest report “shows high levels of achievement by Canadian students.” (For more detail, the CMEC has prepared an entire 89-page report on the latest findings, Measuring up: Canadian Results of the OECD PISA Study.) More...