I’m doing some education research lately and happened to come across this article which refers to the “Canada effect.”
Some have quipped that state-level student achievement in the U.S. can be best predicted by proximity to Canada …
In other words, the most northern states typically have the best results.
However, lest we Canadians get too cockey, we need to remember that correlation is not equivalent to causation, since the article continues ….
–which in turn may be a proxy for variations among states in factors ranging from demographics (e.g., student poverty, parent education, and race) to political culture and spending on education.
Too bad there isn’t something in the air which we can bottle and sell, and trim off the national debt or something.