{"id":1,"date":"2014-09-10T22:40:59","date_gmt":"2014-09-10T22:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/devonmoore\/?p=1"},"modified":"2014-09-17T18:12:36","modified_gmt":"2014-09-17T18:12:36","slug":"hello-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/devonmoore\/2014\/09\/10\/hello-world\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;PISA as a primary metric of excellence is a dangerous call to action&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>To the Editor:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Re \u201cMore money won\u2019t fix need for change in education\u201d (Globe and Mail, 25<sup>th<\/sup> June 2014)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/news\/national\/education\/education-lab\/more-money-wont-fix-need-for-change-in-education\/article19309812\/\">http:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/news\/national\/education\/education-lab\/more-money-wont-fix-need-for-change-in-education\/article19309812\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I commend Lynch\u2019s aversion to complacency in Canadian education. Systemic reflection on educational goals, data-informed decision making, and a constant drive for improvement is vital in today\u2019s global world \u2013 but I wouldn\u2019t be so quick to infer that Canada is a \u201cmiddle of the pack\u201d performer. If PISA is his indicator of choice, let\u2019s consider the most recent (2012) results. Out of 65 participating countries, Canada ranked 6<sup>th<\/sup> in reading, 7<sup>th<\/sup> in science and 13<sup>th<\/sup> in mathematics. \u00a0I\u2019m not suggesting there is no room for improvement \u2013 and it is important to keep pace with global progress \u2013 but I am wary of his insistence on a quest to the top of the charts. To suggest using PISA as a primary metric of excellence is a dangerous call to action.<\/p>\n<p>We would not want to follow the erroneous path of our neighbours to the south. America\u2019s recent focus on standardized testing has many stakeholders criticizing a \u2018teach to the test\u2019 culture in schools, where instructional hours in the classroom naturally prioritize tested subject areas. This avenue is particularly worrisome given the importance of enhancing \u201821<sup>st<\/sup> century skills\u2019 such as creativity, adaptability, and critical thinking in our youth \u2013 a concept which Lynch promoted and I advocate.<\/p>\n<p>Is a focus on global standardized assessments and STEM subjects truly the best approach to cultivating these progressive skills? Canada recently ranked \u2018top ten\u2019 in Critical Problem Solving in the oh-so venerable PISA results. The real question is: why? We should not limit the impact of the results by treating Canada\u2019s global ranking as a goal in and of itself. We should use such assessments to generate valuable insights, enable evaluation of best practices and promote learning from other high-performing systems.<\/p>\n<p>Lynch purports, \u201cwe cannot sustain a one-size-fits-all education\u201d and yet he looks to a \u2018one-size-fits-all\u2019 standardized global assessment as the benchmark for excellence. Let\u2019s focus on what we can learn from an international comparative perspective &#8211; instead of recklessly insisting on podium standing.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To the Editor: &nbsp; Re \u201cMore money won\u2019t fix need for change in education\u201d (Globe and Mail, 25th June 2014) http:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/news\/national\/education\/education-lab\/more-money-wont-fix-need-for-change-in-education\/article19309812\/ &nbsp; I commend Lynch\u2019s aversion to complacency in Canadian education. Systemic reflection on educational goals, data-informed decision making, and a constant drive for improvement is vital in today\u2019s global world \u2013 but I wouldn\u2019t [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6475,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/devonmoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/devonmoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/devonmoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/devonmoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6475"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/devonmoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/devonmoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/devonmoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/9"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/devonmoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/devonmoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/devonmoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}