Writing for the influential international magazine Phi Delta Kappan, Heatherjane Robertson described Saskatchewan’s public schools as “An overlooked success in an under-appreciated province.” Since the article first appeared in 2002, many of the innovative reforms that helped elevate the province’s schools to a position envied throughout North America have remained either relatively hidden or have become the focus of considerable skepticism. The undervaluation of school success may be distressing, but it is not unusual. Public education has rode various waves and crests as it charted a pathway to occupy a strategic place in the development of advanced contemporary societies. The prominence accorded by knowledge, information and credentials in a globalized economy have burdened school systems with even higher expectations neither always matched by the kinds of changes desired by certain groups nor at a pace and in a manner conducive to these desires.
