Andrew Parkin, Council of Ministers of Education, and David Johnson, Wilfrid Laurier University
OECD Test Results: Should We Be Worried About Canadian Student Performance on International Tests?
The results of the OECD's Program for International Student Assessment were recently released, showing a decline in Canadian students' math and science scores, suggesting a growing downward trend. Andrew Parkin, Director General, Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, and David Johnson, Professor, Department of Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University addressed these results and the policy implications for the Canadian education system.
Andrew Parkin is Director General of the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC). CMEC is composed of the 23 provincial and territorial ministers who have responsibility for elementary/secondary and post-secondary education in Canada. The Council provides the ministers with a forum to discuss policy issues, a mechanism through which to carry out education projects, and means through which to represent Canada’s education interests. Dr. Parkin was previously Associate Executive Director and Director, Research and Program Development, of the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation, as well as Co-Director of the Centre for Research and Information on Canada. He completed a post-doctorate at Dalhousie University, his Ph.D. at the University of Bradford (U.K.), and his B.A. (Honours) at Queen’s University. Dr. Parkin has received several academic honours and has authored or co-authored numerous publications on Canadian politics and social policy.
David Johnson is Professor of Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University and Director of the Laurier Centre for Economic Policy. He is currently Education Policy Scholar at the C.D. Howe Institute and from January to June 2008 is Canada-U.S. Fulbright Scholar and Visiting Chair at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His education research is wide ranging including the analysis of elementary school test scores in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. There are other projects using this data to measure the effects of policy interventions and labour unrest on outcomes at schools. There are projects comparing access and persistence at universities across Canadian provinces.
Professor Johnson's areas of specialty are macroeconomics, international finance and, more recently, the economics of education. His published work includes the studies of Canada's international debts, the influence of American interest rates on Canadian interest rates, and the determination of the Canada-United States exchange rate. His 2005 book Signposts of Success is a comprehensive analysis of elementary school test scores in Ontario. The book was selected as a finalist in 2006 for both the Donner Prize and the Purvis Prize. He has also written on monetary policy in Canada and around the world, both on the goal of lower inflation and on the role of inflation targets. His primary teaching area is macroeconomics. He is co-author with Olivier Blanchard of Macroeconomics: Third Canadian Edition, an intermediate macroeconomics text.
Professor Johnson received his undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto in 1978. He received his Masters degree from the University of Western Ontario and his PhD from Harvard University. Before coming to Wilfrid Laurier in 1985, David worked for two years at the Bank of Canada. In 1990 he spent a year at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and in 1999 a year at the University of Cambridge in England. David Johnson lives in Waterloo, Ontario, with his wife Susan, who is also an economics professor. They have shared the raising of two children, Sarah and Daniel. When not studying or teaching economics, David plays Oldtimers' Hockey and Nordic skis in the winter and sculls in the summer. For a complete change of pace, Professor Johnson often teaches Sunday School and is currently on a year off from two years co-directing a Logos program, an after-school program for children and youth, at First Mennonite Church in Kitchener, Ontario.
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