Strong student performance in Alberta reflects deliberate policy decisions that other provinces have been reluctant to make

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If Alberta were a country, its students would rank among the world’s top performers. That success is no accident. It flows from a system that values educational choice over ideological conformity.

For the past 20 years, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has shown Canadian students slipping in science, math and literacy. (PISA is an international test run every three years by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and measures the performance of 15-year-olds.)

One clear reason is a shift away from teaching basic skills. In math, “discovery learning,” which emphasizes student-led problem-solving over direct instruction, has replaced traditional teaching, while phonics has been de-emphasized or replaced with “whole language” approaches that rely on contextual reading rather than systematic decoding. None of the approaches currently favoured by education policymakers or academics is likely to change that.

Human rights commissions exploring the right to read in both Ontario and Manitoba have recommended a return to phonics. In Ontario, a 2022 inquiry by the Ontario Human Rights Commission concluded that widespread reading failure was linked to instructional methods rather than student ability.

Teachers’ unions, however, have not embraced the findings and have often rejected the legitimacy of standardized testing, such as that conducted by PISA, rather than changing their approach.

Instead, classroom priorities have shifted away from academic fundamentals toward identity and social ideology, an approach often described as Cultural Marxism. This thinking has led in some schools to discouraging terms like “mom” and “dad” and treats traditional European culture and its sexual norms negatively.

That approach is a mismatch with many parents’ values and priorities. They want their children to get an education, not an indoctrination in so-called “woke” values.

Governments could and should mandate changes in curriculum or even pedagogy, but a revolt from leftist educators is sure to follow. The Jason Kenney government began walking that road in Alberta, only to face significant backlash. Changes proposed for elementary grades have been implemented while changes for higher grades have been a more difficult process to see through.

A better way to make progress with less backlash is to expand educational choice. Alberta has taken this path further than any other province. It is the only jurisdiction with publicly funded charter schools.

These schools operate tuition-free through independent boards and remain part of the public system, with the province retaining oversight. Their teachers are accredited under provincial standards but are not full union members, a distinction related to collective bargaining rather than professional credentials.

Although charter schools have operated in Alberta since 1994, they were arbitrarily capped at 15. The Kenney government lifted that cap and now there are about 38. Although their 15,400 students represent just two per cent of the K-12 population, their rapid growth reflects high demand.

Choice in Alberta is not limited to charter schools. Alberta also leads in its funding of private schools. The province offers 70 per cent of the per-student public school grant. Other provinces pay less or none. Tuition-paying parents pay education taxes too, and it is only fair that they not shoulder the entire financial load of putting their own children in alternative schools or teaching them at home. That’s partly why Alberta also provides $900 per year per student to home schooling families, second only to Saskatchewan ($1,000).

PISA scores reflect the results of this approach. If Alberta were measured alongside countries, its students would rank second in reading and science and seventh in mathematics internationally, and the province leads or ties for the lead in Canada in all three categories.

The same logic of choice and flexibility extends to staffing. Alberta is developing new certification pathways that allow people with relevant university degrees, diplomas or trade certifications to become teachers without a Bachelor of Education degree, while still requiring subject-matter qualifications.

Similar alternative pathways exist in other jurisdictions, including parts of the United States and the United Kingdom. Many people who would have been good teachers bypassed that option because they did not want to run the ideological gauntlet that starts in education faculties. Such people could get a second chance.

Any change in education that allows innovation to meet demand will improve results. Alberta has shown the way. Canadians elsewhere can only hope their provinces will follow.

Lee Harding is a research fellow for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

Summary: Alberta students continue to lead Canada in tests and score well internationally. One reason is its openness to facilitating educational choice.