Allen Esterson wrote: > Checking on Canada, I notice that for reading, Quebec ranks well below the > English-speaking Alberto, British Columbia and Ontario. Presumably the > Quebec students are tested for reading in their first language, namely of > course, French. So do we have an illustration here of an oppressed minority > struggling to achieve minimal standards of education? -:) The French majority has been firmly in control of Quebec governance for 40 years now. I am surprised at this result. Quebec schools seemed reasonably good when I went to them (30 years ago). There are two schools systems in Quebec -- English and French -- so it may be that we only have results from one school system or the other here. Also, there is a fair bit of crossover from other languages into the French schools (by provincial law, every child whose parents did not go to English school in Quebec must go to French school), so that may affect the average French reading scores (but no more than immigration does in any other country, I wouldn't think).
Regards, Chris -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ "Wherever it is possible to find out the cause of what is happening one should not have recourse to the gods" - Polybius, cited in E. H. Carr's /What is History?/ (Macmillan, 1961, p. 68 n.). ===================================== ---
