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Dear John,
As you may know, our motto here at the Fraser Institute is “if it matters, we measure it!”
And what matters more than the education of Canadian children?
Earlier this year we conducted a study which examines how standardized testing has changed in Canada over the last twenty years.
It found three clear national trends:
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Standardized tests today place less emphasis on subject-specific knowledge;
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Standardized tests are not given the same value as they once were; and
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Standardized tests are administered less often and at fewer grade levels.
This, despite the fact that support for standardized testing among Canadian parents is very high.
>> Support our research of Canada’s education system! <<
In January we commissioned a poll which found that 95% of Canadian parents of K-12 children believe it is important to know their child’s academic performance in the core subjects by a fair and objective measure.
Indeed, in every province or region of Canada, the largest share of parents of K-12 children strongly support standardized testing.
And its not hard to understand why.
Almost 70% of Canadian K-12 parents say their child has fallen behind in school due to the COVID pandemic and the government’s response to it. (That number jumped to 78% in Ontario, where schools remained closed the longest.)
What’s more, a significant portion of these parents feel their child’s school has no plan to make up for this learning loss.
Without standardized testing, however, how will we ever know if our kids have caught up?!
John, it is clear that Canada’s education system has some tough years ahead of it – not only to improve student outcomes, but to regain the trust of Canadian parents.
If you agree that insights into our education system such as the ones provided above are important, I’d like to ask you to make a donation to the Fraser Institute today.
We are one of the only organizations in Canada which regularly analyzes and produces peer-reviewed studies of our education system.
Our Compare School Rankings website, which ranks the academic performance of schools in Canada’s four largest provinces, gets millions of hits every year!
We don’t accept government funding to conduct this research – we rely on supporters like you. If you’re able to, please consider making a donation today so we can continue this important work.
Thank you for your support!
Sincerely,
Niels Veldhuis
President
The Fraser Institute
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