Looking North of the 49th Parallel: P-12 Education in Canada

Abstract

Finland has, as of late, become an inspiration for American school reform. There is no denying that we have much to learn from the Finnish system and it rightly deserves its global accolades. However, over the course of the following pages, I would like to suggest that it is also lucrative to look north of the 49th parallel and consider the practices at work in Canada. Finland has a number of advantages that America lacks, and conditions in Canada are far closer to the challenges faced by American educators. Despite these certain disadvantages, Canada has nevertheless consistently scored near the top of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Programme for International Student Assessment tests and comes extremely close to achieving educational equality. Perhaps even most astonishing is the fact that these results have also been achieved by provinces acting on their own, free from the direct intervention of the federal government based in Ottawa. I argue that the roots of these successes lie in the configuration and organization of schooling practices across the country that, when combined with the indirect support of the federal government, have enabled the creation of a pan-Canadian system of elementary and secondary education.