Canada vs US Schools: What the International Math and Reading Scores Show

Is Canada's education better than the US?

On the evidence of PISA 2025, Canada's lead is statistically significant in one subject out of three. PISA is run by the OECD, every three years until 2025 and every four from now on, and tests 15-year-olds, who in the United States are "typically in the 10th grade," according to NCES. The 2025 results came out on 8 September 2026, and about 24,600 Canadian students wrote the test.

In math, Canada averaged 485 and the United States 463, the same as the OECD average. CMEC marks that 22-point gap as statistically significant.

In reading, each country scored 490, and both scored above the OECD average in reading and science. In science, Canada's 510 against 502 for the US is a difference CMEC does not mark as significant, and its summary says students in Canada "performed as well as students in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, and the United States."

The share of students at each level adds detail that an average hides. PISA calls Level 2 the baseline. In Canada, 74% of 15-year-olds reached it in math, against 65% in the United States. In reading the figures are 78% and 74%, and in science 84% and 78%.

At the top end the picture partly reverses. In reading, 13% of American students reached Level 5 or higher, against 9% in Canada. In science, 13% and 11%. Only in math does Canada have the larger top group, 11% against 8%. So in reading, the published shares suggest two different shapes behind the same average: more American students at the top, and more who fall short of the baseline. These shares come from the OECD's separate notes on each country, with no test of the difference between them.

What changed since PISA 2022?

Canada fell in two subjects, the United States in one. In PISA 2022, Canada scored 497 in math, 507 in reading and 515 in science. The United States scored 465, 504 and 499. Between the two rounds, Canadian reading fell by 17 points and math by 12, while science held steady.

The OECD's note on Canada is blunt: "In all three subjects, PISA 2025 results are the lowest ever observed in PISA in Canada, and are significantly below results from a decade earlier, in 2015." Its note on the United States says American results in math and science were about the same as in 2022, reading was lower, and reading and math were "among the lowest ever observed in PISA in the United States."

Older comparisons need a second look. A 2022 article could fairly say Canada led the US in science by 16 points; in 2025 the gap is 8 and not statistically significant. And neither country is improving. The OECD average itself reached "the lowest average ever recorded" in math and reading.

Why both countries' 2025 scores come with a warning

Neither country met PISA's sampling rules in 2025, and the OECD says so in each country's note.

For Canada, "student and school response rates in 2025 fell below the minimum targets set by PISA technical standards." Canada's own analysis found that, at the student level, non-response "led to slightly higher overall results at the national level." A separate range-of-bias analysis by the OECD found that this upward bias is "unlikely to exceed 15 points in science." CMEC adds that Canada's testing window was extended by three weeks because labour negotiations in one province affected participation.

For the United States, the OECD lists three shortfalls: student response rates fell below the minimum target, student exclusions exceeded the tolerance set by PISA technical standards, and school participation fell short of its target. Its best- and worst-case analyses suggest that two of them, school non-participation and student non-response, "could meaningfully affect results," and it estimated the possible range for each one separately. Its conclusion: "it is not possible to rule out bias in PISA performance results, nor to determine its most likely direction." The US sample was also small, 4,625 students in 144 schools, against about 24,600 students in 897 schools in Canada, so the US scores carry wider margins of error.

CMEC's significance tests rest on standard errors, which it uses to express the uncertainty from "sampling error and measurement error." The reading and science differences fall within that margin, so they are not statistically significant. Bias from students who did not take part is a separate issue: CMEC says Canada's results "are to be treated with caution" partly "because of possible non-response bias." For a parent, the 22-point math lead passes the significance test, but its true size is uncertain. The US results could be biased in either direction, and Canada's may run slightly high, so read the gap with caution.

What happens at Grade 4: TIMSS and PIRLS

PISA tests teenagers. Two other international studies, both run by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), test younger children, and they do not tell the same story.

TIMSS 2023 (math and science, Grades 4 and 8). Canada took part at Grade 4 only. Its sample covered five provinces, Alberta, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario and Quebec, which the IEA lists as 79% of the target population. In NCES's tables of the results, Grade 4 students in Canada averaged 504 in math against 517 in the United States, and 521 in science against 532. NCES marks both gaps as statistically significant in favour of the United States, but flags the science difference "Interpret data with caution" because its estimate is unstable. Ontario and Quebec also took part on their own as benchmarking participants: Quebec scored 515 in math and Ontario 503. There is no Grade 8 result for Canada to compare with the US score of 488.

The US numbers come with their own warning. NCES reports that American students "scored lower, on average, in 2023 than they did in 2019 (by 18 and 27 points, respectively)" in Grade 4 and Grade 8 math.

PIRLS 2021 (reading, Grade 4). There is no score for Canada as a country. Five provinces signed up as benchmarking participants. Quebec scored 551, Alberta 539, British Columbia 535 and Newfoundland and Labrador 523, and Ontario had "insufficient data to report results." The United States scored 548, but its children were tested half a year later than most, at the beginning of Grade 5, as were Quebec's, and the IEA warns that comparisons with children tested at the end of Grade 4 "need to be made with great care." The United States, Alberta and Quebec also missed the study's participation guidelines. A Canada vs US reading comparison at Grade 4 does not exist in this data.

Where does Canada rank in education?

There is no single ranking that holds up. The pages that rank "education" mix school tests with university rankings and adult degree rates. For school-age students, the defensible statement comes from CMEC's PISA 2025 report: six countries and three economies scored above Canada in reading, five countries and four economies in math, and four countries and three economies in science.

CMEC groups countries as above, at or below the Canadian average rather than numbering them, because systems a few points apart are often not significantly different. The United States sits in the "at the Canadian average" group for reading and science, and below Canada in math.

Inside Canada the provinces differ. Ontario scored 513 in science, 494 in reading and 484 in math, all at the Canadian average. Its math score dropped 11 points from 495 in 2022, one of four provinces where math fell. Quebec was the only province above the Canadian average in math, at 500. Alberta had the highest provincial score in science, 520, but CMEC places it at the Canadian average. CMEC also says results for Canada and most provinces "should be treated with caution because one or more PISA technical standards were not met."

Why can't you compare state tests with provincial tests?

Because each country's own tests are built for its own classrooms, and neither is given in the other country.

In the United States the national test is NAEP, the National Assessment of Educational Progress. It tests only a sample of students: NCES says "NAEP draws a grade-based sample and targets students in 4th, 8th, and 12th grades." NCES describes it as "more closely tied to U.S. school curricula," and its scales for Grade 8 math and reading run from 0 to 500, while PISA's run to 1,000. No Canadian student writes NAEP.

Canada has no national test that every student writes. Provinces run their own, such as EQAO in Ontario, and our guide to provincial testing compares them. The one pan-Canadian program, PCAP, is a sample of Canadian students only, and CMEC notes that because school programs "differ from one part of the country to another, making comparisons of results is complex." Results from Ontario's own tests are covered in EQAO results, explained.

So a headline that sets an Ontario EQAO percentage against a state test pass rate is comparing two different exams with two different standards. Only the international studies put Canadian and American students on the same test.

How are schools run in Canada compared with the US?

Neither country has a national school system. In Canada, CMEC says, "In the 10 provinces and 3 territories, departments or ministries of education are responsible for the organization, delivery, and assessment of education at the elementary and secondary levels," and there are "significant differences in curriculum, assessment, and accountability policies among provinces and territories." In the United States, the federal Department of Education says "Education is primarily a State and local responsibility." A family moving from a US state to Ontario is moving from one set of local rules to another.

For an American family looking at Ontario specifically, the diploma is the Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD). A student who started Grade 9 in 2024 or later needs 30 credits (17 compulsory and 13 optional), the literacy requirement and at least two online learning credits. Students who began Grade 9 in the 2025-2026 school year or later must also meet a financial literacy requirement, earned in the Grade 10 Career Studies course. Ontario adds: "Everyone needs 40 hours of community involvement activities (volunteering) to get their high school diploma." Our guides to Ontario credits for international students and report card levels go further.

What the scores do not tell you about one school or one child

PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS test random samples and report on systems. None reports a score for a child or a school, and none tells you whether a particular school in Calgary is better than one in Chicago.

Differences between students inside Canada are far larger than the difference between the two countries' averages. In PISA 2025 science, where Canada's average was 8 points above the US's, a Canadian student at the 90th percentile scored 258 points above one at the 10th percentile, the same spread as the OECD average. Family background also matters less in Canada than on average across the OECD: advantaged Canadian students outscored disadvantaged ones by 59 points in science, against 85 across the OECD. The US note carries no comparable figure, because over 40% of American students who wrote PISA 2025 were not given the questionnaire.

So the country average says little about your child's school. What tells you more is how your child is doing against the course they are taking now: the report card, the teacher's comments, and whether the basics in math and reading are secure for the grade.

Where a certified teacher fits

International scores describe school systems, not individual teachers, and none of the studies here measured what a single teacher adds for a single child. What a parent can control is closer to home: whether a gap in this year's course gets noticed and taught before the next unit builds on it.

Genie works only with Canadian Certified Teachers, licensed by a provincial governing body such as the Ontario College of Teachers. Its How it works page says "every teacher is provincially certified, and that is checked before their profile goes live," and that lessons run "1-on-1 online around the course your child is already taking at school." Its pages list Grade 1 to Grade 12 in mathematics, the sciences, English, French and the senior Ontario courses. For a family outside Canada hiring any Canadian teacher, our guide to hiring a Canadian teacher from overseas covers time zones and payments, and how to check a teacher's certification shows how to confirm a licence yourself.