'Inclusiveness is one of your strengths': OECD education director defends P.E.I. PISA results

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development has no concerns about the validity of international students assessments on P.E.I. in 2015, despite a high number of students excluded from taking the tests.

The OECD's director for education and skills, Andreas Schleicher, is on P.E.I. this week participating in meetings of Canada's education ministers.

In OECD's PISA testing on P.E.I. in 2015, the results of which were announced late last year, 14.3 per cent of Island students were excluded from the testing, up from 8.3 per cent in the last round of testing in 2012.

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It was the highest rate of exclusion in Canada, and higher than any country included in the testing, but Schleicher told CBC's Island Morning the results were carefully scrutinized, and are considered valid.

"If we had concerns about comparability we would have excluded those results from reporting," said Schleicher.

School inclusiveness a factor

P.E.I.'s exclusion rate was high, said Schleicher, partly because it includes so many students in its regular classes.

"Inclusiveness is one of your strengths, the high degree of equity," he said.

"Social background has much less of an influence in P.E.I. than in many other nations."

Many of the students excluded from the testing would not even be going to school in other nations, said Schleicher.

"That is a challenge," he said.

"Many of the assessments and tests are not yet capable to be administered to students from severe disadvantage."

Schleicher said the way assessments are delivered is being updated constantly to make them accessible for more students.

Recent improvements in P.E.I.'s PISA results should be celebrated, Schleicher added.

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