In 2000, the OECD began the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a triennial survey of the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds. For each survey, Canadian students placed well above the OECD average and remain among the top performers for each domain assessed (reading, math and...

This paper presents standardised test scores results in literacy from 19 provincial and international surveys in education conducted over years 2000 to 2018. The analysis draws on students in provinces, mainly Québec and Ontario, at three stages of education, grade 4 in primary school, grade 8...

We investigate the impact of an ambitious provincial school reform in Canada on students. mathematical achievements. This reform provides advantages for the purpose of evaluation and cuts across some of the methodological difficulties of previous research. First, the reform was implemented in...

Canada is recognized as one of the top 10 countries in secondary education according to PISA results. A particularly intriguing case in this country is the large system of highly subsidized independent schools in the province of Québec where students also perform extremely well in PISA testing....

In this article, we document the evolution of the cognitive skills gap across Canada. We use PISA tests scores over 7 cycles, from 2000 to 2018, to provide an exhaustive portrait of the evolution of the tests scores distribution over time and by parental socioeconomic status. We find that the...