If you are into education, into reducing inequality, and into trying to create equality of opportunity, this is a particularly interesting finding.
In a nutshell here is what is going on ... In Canada education is by and large funded equitably. In the province where I live all students irrespective of whether they live in poor or rich neighbourhoods (Canadian spelling - yes there is a difference for a number of words) are funded at a set dollar amount per student. Adjustments are then made for things like percentage of ESL students etc. The bottom line is that paying higher property taxes does not get you more resources for your school board to spend on your kids. Yeah, I know, socialism ... but not really.
“This is good because in not letting the least advantaged kids – in terms of family resources – fall behind, we have an overall higher score, and frankly in the long run, a more inclusive society.”What you find in the Canadian system is a huge effort to stop kids from falling behind including lots of special ed. There seems to be a lot less spent, relatively, on gifted or advanced programs. The result shows up in the numbers below the squiggle where we see that "class" is less of a determinant of performance than for many other nations - and I would argue that starts with how schools are funded.