ZWAAGSTRA: Canadian students doing worse than 20 years ago

Provincial governments should focus on improving the quality of instruction students receive.

Published Sep 22, 2026  •  Last updated 24 minutes ago  •  3 minute read

A happy young student works on a laptop in a classroom. Photo by Rido /Adobe Stock

More than a century ago, Mark Twain popularized the phrase “Lies, damned lies and statistics,” noting that it’s possible to manipulate statistics to say whatever you want.

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It’s worth keeping this in mind when we examine the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which tests the academic skills of 15-year-old students worldwide every three years. This makes it possible to compare countries and track progress over time.

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According to PISA’s latest results released earlier this month, Canadian students score above the OECD average in math, reading and science. Shortly after the results came out, the Council of Ministers of Education issued a press release claiming that Canadian students “are among the world’s top performers in science” and “demonstrated strong performance in reading and mathematics.”

Keep in mind, however, the adage about lies, damned lies and statistics. While it’s true Canadian students performed relatively well compared to students in other countries, it’s also true that PISA scores have dropped significantly in all provinces over the last 20 years.

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For example, from 2006 to 2025, Canadian students dropped by 37 points in reading and 42 points in math. PISA equates 20 points with approximately one grade level. This means Canadian students are approximately two grade levels behind in reading and math compared to where similar students were 20 years ago. That statistic should concern everyone. Over the same period, science scores dropped 24 points — less steep, but still more than a full year of learning has been lost. Now, most other countries also saw their scores decline, but this does not change the fact that Canadian students are performing worse academically than they did 20 years ago.

Notably, the steepest declines took place over the last decade. While reading scores were generally stable from 2006 to 2015, they declined markedly from 2015 to 2025. Math and science scores declined continuously from 2006 to 2005, but the sharpest declines in both these subjects were also from 2015 to 2025. The top-performing province (Alberta) had the highest scores in Canada in reading and science and the second-highest scores in math (only Quebec scored higher) yet saw a steady decline from 2006 to 2025, with the most significant declines over the last 10 years. The only reason Alberta still ranks at the top is that the other provinces all declined at a similar rate.

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Clearly, it’s misleading to trumpet statistics about Canada’s relatively high average academic standing when results also show significant academic decline. Instead of celebrating a false achievement, every education minister in every province should ask themselves why Canadian students are doing worse now than they did in the past.

There are a variety of likely contributing factors.

Governments have eroded standardized testing in nearly every province and, with fewer standardized tests, it becomes more difficult to accurately track student academic progress and hold schools accountable for the performance of their students. In addition, many school boards use faulty instructional methods such as discovery math and “whole language” reading instruction. And many school administrators, supported by their school boards, fail to clamp down on violence in schools, which makes it difficult for any learning to take place.

When analyzed comprehensibly, statistics don’t lie. Canadian students are doing worse than they were 20 years ago. Provincial governments should stop sending out congratulatory media releases that cherry-pick PISA data and focus instead on improving the quality of instruction students receive.

Michael Zwaagstra is a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute

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