The results of the PISA schools study from 2009 were published recently and (albeit only in the three national languages) make interesting reading.

http://pisa.educa.ch/sites/default/f.../pisa_de_0.pdf

It would appear that Schaffhausen is one of the better cantons for education. Aargau is not that bad either, but Zurich is way down. They look at performance in reading, maths and sciences.

I work in education and in my opinion, studies like the famous PISA are a rather useless and a somewhat scary trend. Do we really need to stick everything in boxes today and put labels on it? Is anyone who thought about it for 5mins really surprised that education in a rural canton like Appenzell is maybe not the same is in Zurich? Is anyone seriously promoting that it should be? The number of foreigners in Zurich is twice as high as in some rural canton. Of course they can't read as well as the natives. Of course that brings down the average. Does that really mean the entire canton is missing out on education? I don't think so. Some of the gymnasia in Zurich are doing incredibly good work and from what I've seen I'd rate them as some of the most enjoyable places to work for.

The real differences that we are trying to pick up in PISA do not happen on a cantonal level. They happen between Spreitenbach and Herrliberg. This is where we should maybe address our political attention and educational efforts - not on Zurich vs. Schaffhausen.