On November 28, 2011, the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) released the 2010 results of the Pan-Canadian Assessment Program (PCAP). The PCAP is administered to 13- and 16-year olds and is designed to assess students’ “abilities to use their learning skills to solve real-life situations” (www.cmec.ca). The assessments in science, math and reading incorporate cultural, linguistic and geographic differences that exist within Canada and test the commonly agreed-upon curriculum for all jurisdictions. The most recent round of PCAP tests was administered to 32,000 Grade 8 students from 1,600 schools across the country.