THE COMPLETE STORY: A POPULATION‐ BASED PERSPECTIVE ON SCHOOL PERFORMANCE AND EDUCATIONAL TESTING

All children born in Manitoba in 1984 were tracked for 18 years to assess their grade‐ 12 performance on a provincial examination according to a student’s socio‐economic status. The proportion of youths in families receiving social assistance judged to have passed their language arts exam dropped from 80 per cent to 12 per cent, depending on whether one counts only those in the cohort who took the test on time in 2002 or all youths born in 1984 who should have taken the test in 2002. Getting better data on performance and doing something about the discrepancies should become a Canadian priority. Key words: educational opportunity, exam performance, socio‐economic status, testing, longitudinal studies Tous les enfants nés au Manitoba en 1984 ont été suivis sur une période de 18 ans en vue d’évaluer leur rendement en 12e année lors d’un examen provincial, tenant compte de leur statut socioéconomique. La proportion de jeunes issus des familles recevant de l’aide sociale et considérés comme ayant réussi leur examen au plan des compétences linguistiques passe de 80 % à 12 %, selon que l’on compte seulement ceux qui, dans la cohorte, ont subi l’examen à temps en 2002 ou tous les jeunes nés en 1984 qui auraient dû subir l’examen. En matière d’égalité des chances, la performance du système scolaire actuel au Canada laisse à désirer. Mots clés: possibilités éducatives, résultats d’examen, statut socioéconomique, analyse longitudinale.

Academic and Social Outcomes for High‐Risk Youths in Manitoba

This study examined academic and social outcomes for high‐risk youths in Manitoba, using longitudinal, population‐based data. All children born in Manitoba in 1984‐1985 who resided in Winnipeg the year they turned 18 were included in analyses (N = 11,703). High risk youths were defined as those involved with child welfare services, living in poverty, and/or having a mother who was a teen at first childbirth. Of youths with one risk factor, 41 to 57 per cent failed to complete high school, and 84 per cent of those with all three risk factors did not complete high school, compared with only 18 per cent of youths with none of the risk factors. Multiple risk factors put youths at an even greater disadvantage. Similar poor outcomes for high risk youths were observed for performance in grade 9, unemployment in early adulthood, and teen births. The findings suggest an intractable cycle of risk and disadvantage with farreaching social and economic implications

Standard Cost Lists for Healthcare in Canada: Issues in Validity and Inter-Provincial Consolidation

A standard cost list is a listing of recommended costs for a selected group of services. Standard costs are used in economic evaluation studies to eliminate that proportion of cost differences between interventions that are due to cost differences between providers. In this article we provide a summary of cost lists for pharmaceutical economic evaluation purposes which have been developed in 2 provinces in Canada - Alberta and Manitoba. We then assess these 2 lists from 2 different viewpoints. First, we developed criteria for the internal and external validity of costs and, in light of these validity criteria, we assessed how the 2 standard cost lists compared with the `ideal' measure of long run marginal costs. Second, we identified the criteria for the inter-provincial consolidation of standard cost measures (in order to develop a single, consolidated cost list); in light of these criteria, we assessed whether the degree to which the 2 separate lists could be consolidated. The lists achieved a considerable degree of external validity, but fared less well in terms of internal validity. However, these results depend on the `ideal' measure of cost which is used. The lists, in the forms which were developed, are not easily consolidated into a single list. Further refined cost data would be needed in order to achieve consolidation.Reviews-on-treatment, Healthcare-expenditure, Pharmacoeconomics, Health-economics