Alignment of a high-ranked PISA mathematics curriculum and the Parallel Curriculum for gifted students: Is a high PISA Mathematics ranking indicative of curricular suitability for gifted learners?

ABSTRACT Quebec students have generally excelled in international mathematics comparisons and 22% performed in the top category, Level 6, on PISA in 2012. Several countries with more extensive gifted programs scored and ranked considerably lower and had smaller proportions achieving Level 6. Does this mean a general mathematics curriculum with such indices of success could sufficiently serve gifted students? The US NAGC’s Parallel Curriculum model served as a template to explore Quebec’s ninth-grade mathematics curriculum for components of the four Parallel Curriculum strands: core, connections, practice, and identity. The Quebec curriculum included a strong core, but fewer elements of the three other Parallels. The anomaly remains: A strong core curriculum was associated with high PISA scores and rankings, yet did not meet all the criteria for gifted programming. At the same time, even though the literature reports that formal gifted programming is sometimes associated with higher proportions of learners achieving at PISA’s level 6, such provision is not as well related to overall high PISA averages or rankings.