system as a whole." The sweeping conclusions reached by the OECD report authors will certainly be challenged by great numbers of students, parents, and staff. Why? Because their appraisal will be based upon more than SES benchmarked comparative test results, and they are likely far more familiar with the true advantages -- for better or worse -- of a private school education. What was behind the sensationalist Toronto Star story painting all private schools with the same tarred brush? Why do private school students, worldwide, tend to perform better on student achievement assessments? If some socially-advantaged "public schools" do produce better student results, why do public school promoters continue to insist that all schools provide a good education? What is it about private schools that explains why their students tend to perform "significantly better" when assessed on a level playing field? Like this: 93 Responses Perhaps the motivation behind the Toronto Star's (Jennifer Yang) article captures the ever increasing need by the public system, in this case Ontario's MOE, to evaluate the competition. When there is a history of and long term projection of declining enrolment, and an ever voracious Blob, every student counts for the public school system. How to retain what students are available in a centralizing public school enviornment? Tar the whole IS system as a credit mill and hope to relocate the lost sheep back into the fold. Or prevent them from drifting away in the first place. Hard to do in a one size fits