Interpreting health and education rankings
Tuesday, 16 September 2008 : The Daily publicised a methodological paper Making Sense of Health Rankings (82-582-XWE, free), a joint project between Statistics Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Information, designed to make us better consumers of the tables.
"Although the media grab our attention with such rankings, how seriously can they be taken? What questions should Canadians be asking as they read news articles about the relative ranking of their hospital or their jurisdiction’s health care system?"
The caveats offered in this concise and readable paper could as easily apply to the controversial and highly influential rankings of Canada's education sector, such as a report on Quebec's Secondary Schools: 2008 Edition Report Card released today by the Fraser Institute.