Education Indicators in Canada: An International Perspective 2013

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Foreword

The primary objectives of the Pan-Canadian Education Indicators Program (PCEIP) are to develop and maintain a set of statistics that provide information about education and learning in Canada and to support evidence-based policy making. PCEIP has been doing this since publishing its first set of education indicators for Canada and its jurisdictions in 1996. In September 2009, a set of international indicators was introduced in the first edition of Education Indicators in Canada: An International Perspective. Each year, this PCEIP series presents indicators for Canada and its provinces/territories, placing them in a broader international context. The report has been designed to complement and expand upon the information for Canada that is provided annually to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for publication in its Education at a Glance (EAG) report. The international context provided by the report supports the mission of the Canadian Education Statistics Council (CESC) to “create and commit to comprehensive and long�term strategies, plans, and programs to collect, analyze, and disseminate nationally and internationally policy-relevant and comparable statistical information.”

A set of 11 international indicators is presented in Education Indicators in Canada: An International Perspective 2013. This year’s set of indicators captures information on educational attainment, upper secondary graduation rates, labour market outcomes, expenditure on education, international students, transitions to the labour market, and the organization of learning environments at the elementary and secondary levels—for Canada, and for its provinces/territories.

The intention of this report is to allow Canada and its jurisdictions to be compared in an international context. The definitions, categories and methodologies have been aligned with those of the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) to allow standardized and comparable statistics, thus the figures in the report may differ somewhat from similar numbers produced by the provinces and territories themselves. This report’s Notes to readers section includes explanations and descriptions of the relevant ISCED categories, and outlines how the Statistics Canada data used are aligned with this international system.

Highlights for all 11 indicators appear at the beginning of this report, and complete indicator texts are presented under four general themes: the output of educational institutions and the impact of learning (Indicators A1 through A3); financial resources invested in education (B1 through B3); access to education, participation and progression (C1 and C2); and the learning environment and organization of schools (D1 through D3). The tables for all of these indicators follow the chapters, and the report concludes with a list of Committees and organizations which outlines the many individuals who have played important roles in producing and reviewing this report.

Education Indicators in Canada: An International Perspective, 2013 is published by the Canadian Education Statistics Council (CESC) as part of its broader endeavour, the Pan-Canadian Education Indicators Program (PCEIP). The CESC is a partnership between the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) and Statistics Canada. The CESC was established in 1989 to improve the quality and comparability of Canadian education data and to provide information that can inform policy development in education.

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