Programme for International Student Assessment

      Programme for International Student Assessment
      Abbreviation PISA
      Formation 1997
      Purpose/focus Comparison of education attainment across the world
      Headquarters OECD Headquarters
      Location 2 rue André Pascal, 75775 Paris Cedex 16
      Region served World
      Membership 59 government education departments
      Head of the Indicators and Analysis Division Andreas Schleicher
      Main organ PISA Governing Body (Chair - Lorna Bertrand, England)
      Parent organization OECD
      Website PISA

      The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a worldwide study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in member and non-member nations of 15-year-old school pupils' scholastic performance on mathematics, science, and reading. It was first performed in 2000 and then repeated every three years. It is done with view to improving education policies and outcomes. The data has increasingly been used both to assess the impact of education quality on incomes and growth and for understanding what causes differences in achievement across nations.[1]

      470,000 15-year-old students representing 65 nations and territories participated in PISA 2009. An additional 50,000 students representing nine nations were tested in 2010.[2]

      The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement are similar studies.

      Framework

      PISA stands in a tradition of international school studies, undertaken since the late 1950s by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). Much of PISA's methodology follows the example of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS, started in 1995), which in turn was much influenced by the U.S. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The reading component of PISA is inspired by the IEA's Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS).

      PISA aims at testing literacy in three competence fields: reading, mathematics, science.

      The PISA mathematics literacy test asks students to apply their mathematical knowledge to solve problems set in real-world contexts. To solve the problems students must activate a number of mathematical competencies as well as a broad range of mathematical content knowledge. TIMSS, on the other hand, measures more traditional classroom content such as an understanding of fractions and decimals and the relationship between them (curriculum attainment). PISA claims to measure education's application to real-life problems and lifelong learning (workforce knowledge).

      In the reading test, "OECD/PISA does not measure the extent to which 15-year-old students are fluent readers or how competent they are at word recognition tasks or spelling." Instead, they should be able to "construct, extend and reflect on the meaning of what they have read across a wide range of continuous and non-continuous texts."[3]

      ↑Jump back a section

      Development and implementation

      Developed from 1997, the first PISA assessment was carried out in 2000. The results of each period of assessment take about one year and a half to be analysed. First results were published in November 2001. The release of raw data and the publication of technical report and data handbook only took place in spring 2002. The triennial repeats follow a similar schedule; the process of seeing through a single PISA cycle, start-to-finish, always takes over four years.

      Every period of assessment focuses on one of the three competence fields of reading, math, science; but the two others are tested as well. After nine years, a full cycle is completed: after 2000, reading was again the main domain in 2009.

      Period Main focus # OECD countries # other countries # students Notes
      2000 Reading 28 4 265,000 The Netherlands disqualified from data analysis. 11 additional non-OECD countries took the test in 2002
      2003 Mathematics 30 11 275,000 UK disqualified from data analysis. Also included test in problem solving.
      2006 Science 30 27
      2009 Reading 34 33? Results made available on 7 December 2010.[4]

      PISA is sponsored, governed, and coordinated by the OECD. The test design, implementation, and data analysis is delegated to an international consortium of research and educational institutions led by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). ACER leads in developing and implementing sampling procedures and assisting with monitoring sampling outcomes across these countries. The assessment instruments fundamental to PISA's reading, mathematics, science, problem-solving, computer-based testing, background and contextual questionnaires are similarly constructed and refined by ACER. ACER also develops purpose-built software to assist in sampling and data capture, and analyses all data. The source code of the data analysis software is not made public.

      ↑Jump back a section

      Method of testing

      Sampling

      The students tested by PISA are ages between 15 years and 3 months and 16 years and 2 months at the beginning of the assessment period. The school year pupils are in is not taken into consideration. Only students at school are tested, not home-schoolers. In PISA 2006, however, several countries also used a grade-based sample of students. This made it possible to study how age and school year interact.

      To fulfill OECD requirements, each country must draw a sample of at least 5,000 students. In small countries like Iceland and Luxembourg, where there are fewer than 5,000 students per year, an entire age cohort is tested. Some countries used much larger samples than required to allow comparisons between regions.

      Test

      PISA test documents on a school table (Neues Gymnasium, Oldenburg, Germany, 2006)

      Each student takes a two-hour handwritten test. Part of the test is multiple-choice and part involves fuller answers. There are six and a half hours of assessment material, but each student is not tested on all the parts. Following the cognitive test, participating students spend nearly one more hour answering a questionnaire on their background including learning habits, motivation and family. School directors fill in a questionnaire describing school demographics, funding, etc.

      In selected countries, PISA started experimentation with computer adaptive testing.

      National add-ons

      Countries are allowed to combine PISA with complementary national tests.

      Germany does this in a very extensive way: On the day following the international test, students take a national test called PISA-E (E=Ergänzung=complement). Test items of PISA-E are closer to TIMSS than to PISA. While only about 5,000 German students participate in the international and the national test, another 45,000 take only the latter. This large sample is needed to allow an analysis by federal states. Following a clash about the interpretation of 2006 results, the OECD warned Germany that it might withdraw the right to use the "PISA" label for national tests.[5]

      Data scaling

      From the beginning, PISA has been designed with one particular method of data analysis in mind. Since students work on different test booklets, raw scores must be 'scaled' to allow meaningful comparisons. This scaling is done using the Rasch model of item response theory (IRT). According to IRT, it is not possible to assess the competence of students who solved none or all of the test items. This problem is circumvented by imposing a Gaussian prior probability distribution of competences.[6]

      One and the same scale is used to express item difficulties and student competences. The scaling procedure is tuned such that the a posteriori distribution of student competences, with equal weight given to all OECD countries, has mean 500 and standard deviation 100.

      ↑Jump back a section

      Results

      The official reports only contain domain-specific scores and do not combine the different domains into an overall score. The final scoring is adjusted so that the OECD average in each domain is 500 and the standard deviation is 100.[7]

      Historical tables

      All PISA results are broken down by countries. Public attention concentrates on just one outcome: achievement mean values by countries. These data are regularly published in form of "league tables".[citation needed]

      The following table gives the mean achievements of OECD member countries in the principal testing domain of each period:[8]

      In the official reports, country rankings are communicated in a more elaborate form: not as lists, but as cross tables, indicating for each pair of countries whether or not mean score differences are statistically significant (unlikely to be due to random fluctuations in student sampling or in item functioning). In favorable cases, a difference of 9 points is sufficient to be considered significant.[citation needed]

      In some popular media, test results from all three literacy domains have been consolidated in an overall country ranking. Such meta-analysis is not endorsed by the OECD. The official reports only contain domain-specific country scores. In part of the official reports, however, scores from a period's principal testing domain are used as proxy for overall student ability.[9]

      2000–2006

      Top results for the main areas of investigation of PISA, in 2000, 2003 and 2006.

      2000[3] 2003 2006
      Reading literacy Mathematics Science
      1.  Finland 546
      2.  Canada 534
      3.  New Zealand 529
      4.  Australia 528
      5.  Ireland 527
      6.  South Korea 525
      7.  United Kingdom 523
      8.  Japan 522
      9.  Sweden 516
      10.  Austria 507
      11.  Belgium 507
      12.  Iceland 507
      13.  Norway 505
      14.  France 505
      15.  United States 504
      16.  Denmark 497
      17.  Switzerland 494
      18.  Spain 493
      19.  Czech Republic 492
      20.  Italy 487
      21.  Germany 484
      22.  Hungary 480
      23.  Poland 479
      24.  Greece 474
      25.  Portugal 470
      26.  Luxembourg 441
      27.  Russia 462
      28.  Latvia 458
      29.  Mexico 422
      30.  Brazil 396
      1.  Finland 544
      2.  South Korea 542
      3.  Netherlands 538
      4.  Japan 534
      5.  Canada 532
      6.  Belgium 529
      7.  Switzerland 527
      8.  Australia 524
      9.  New Zealand 523
      10.  Czech Republic 516
      11.  Iceland 515
      12.  Denmark 514
      13.  France 511
      14.  Sweden 503
      15.  Austria 506
      16.  Germany 503
      17.  Ireland 503
      18.  Slovakia 498
      19.  Norway 495
      20.  Luxembourg 493
      21.  Poland 490
      22.  Hungary 490
      23.  Spain 485
      24.  United States 483
      25.  Italy 466
      26.  Portugal 466
      27.  Greece 445
      28.  Turkey 423
      29.  Mexico 385
      1.  Finland 563
      2.  Canada 534
      3.  Japan 531
      4.  New Zealand 530
      5.  Australia 527
      6.  Netherlands 525
      7.  South Korea 522
      8.  Germany 516
      9.  United Kingdom 515
      10.  Czech Republic 513
      11.  Switzerland 512
      12.  Austria 511
      13.  Belgium 510
      14.  Ireland 508
      15.  Hungary 504
      16.  Sweden 503
      17.  Poland 498
      18.  Denmark 496
      19.  France 495
      20.  Iceland 491
      21.  United States 489
      22.  Slovakia 488
      23.  Spain 488
      24.  Norway 487
      25.  Luxembourg 486
      26.  Italy 475
      27.  Portugal 474
      28.  Greece 473
      29.  Turkey 424
      30.  Mexico 410

      2006

      Top 10 countries for Pisa 2006 results in Mathematics, Sciences and Reading.

      Programme for International Student Assessment (2006)
      (OECD member countries in boldface)
      Maths Sciences Reading
      1.  Taiwan 549
      2.  Finland 548
      3.  Hong Kong 547
      3.  South Korea 547
      5.  Netherlands 531
      6.  Switzerland 530
      7.  Canada 527
      8.  Macau 525
      8.  Liechtenstein 525
      10.  Japan 523
      1.  Finland 563
      2.  Hong Kong 542
      3.  Canada 534
      4.  Taiwan 532
      5.  Estonia 531
      5.  Japan 531
      7.  New Zealand 530
      8.  Australia 527
      9.  Netherlands 525
      10.  Liechtenstein 522
      1.  South Korea 556
      2.  Finland 547
      3.  Hong Kong 536
      4.  Canada 527
      5.  New Zealand 521
      6.  Ireland 517
      7.  Australia 513
      8.  Liechtenstein 510
      9.  Poland 508
      10.  Sweden 507


      2009

      The PISA 2009 results in Maths, Sciences and Reading for all 34 OECD members and 37 partner countries. Of the partner countries, only selected areas of three countries—India, Venezuela and China—were assessed. Due to scheduling constraints, 10 of those partners actually carried out their tests in 2010, not 2009.

      Programme for International Student Assessment (2009)[10][11]
      (OECD members as of the time of the study in boldface)
      Maths Sciences Reading
      1 China Shanghai, China 600
      2  Singapore 562
      3  Hong Kong, China 555
      4  South Korea 546
      5  Taiwan 543
      6  Finland 541
      7  Liechtenstein 536
      8  Switzerland 534
      9  Japan 529
      10  Canada 527
      11  Netherlands 526
      12  Macau, China 525
      13  New Zealand 519
      14  Belgium 515
      15  Australia 514
      16  Germany 513
      17  Estonia 512
      18  Iceland 507
      19  Denmark 503
      20  Slovenia 501
      21  Norway 498
      22  France 497
      23  Slovakia 497
      24  Austria 496
      25  Poland 495
      26  Sweden 494
      27  Czech Republic 493
      28  United Kingdom 492
      29  Hungary 490
      30  Luxembourg 489
      31  United States 487
      32  Portugal 487
      33  Ireland 487
      34  Spain 483
      35  Italy 483
      36  Latvia 482
      37  Lithuania 477
      38  Russia 468
      39  Greece 466
      40  Malta 463
      41  Croatia 460
      42  Israel 447
      43  Turkey 445
      44  Serbia 442
      45  Azerbaijan 431
      46  Bulgaria 428
      47  Uruguay 427
      48  Romania 427
      49  United Arab Emirates 421
      50  Chile 421
      51  Mauritius 420
      52  Thailand 419
      53  Mexico 419
      54  Trinidad and Tobago 414
      55  Costa Rica 409
      56  Kazakhstan 405
      57  Malaysia 404
      58  Montenegro 403
      59  Moldova 397
      60 Venezuela Miranda, Venezuela 397
      61  Argentina 388
      62  Jordan 387
      63  Brazil 386
      64  Colombia 381
      65  Georgia 379
      66  Albania 377
      67  Tunisia 371
      68  Indonesia 371
      69  Qatar 368
      70  Peru 365
      71  Panama 360
      72 India Tamil Nadu, India 351
      73 India Himachal Pradesh, India 338
      74  Kyrgyzstan 331
      1 China Shanghai, China 575
      2  Finland 554
      3  Hong Kong, China 549
      4  Singapore 542
      5  Japan 539
      6  South Korea 538
      7  New Zealand 532
      8  Canada 529
      9  Estonia 528
      10  Australia 527
      11  Netherlands 522
      12  Liechtenstein 520
      13  Germany 520
      14  Taiwan 520
      15  Switzerland 517
      16  United Kingdom 514
      17  Slovenia 512
      18  Macau, China 511
      19  Poland 508
      20  Ireland 508
      21  Belgium 507
      22  Hungary 503
      23  United States 502
      24  Norway 500
      25  Czech Republic 500
      26  Denmark 499
      27  France 498
      28  Iceland 496
      29  Sweden 495
      30  Latvia 494
      31  Austria 494
      32  Portugal 493
      33  Lithuania 491
      34  Slovakia 490
      35  Italy 489
      36  Spain 488
      37  Croatia 486
      38  Luxembourg 484
      39  Russia 478
      40  Greece 470
      41  Malta 461
      42  Israel 455
      43  Turkey 454
      44  Chile 447
      45  Serbia 443
      46  Bulgaria 439
      47  United Arab Emirates 438
      48  Costa Rica 430
      49  Romania 428
      50  Uruguay 427
      51  Thailand 425
      52 Venezuela Miranda, Venezuela 422
      53  Malaysia 422
      54  Mauritius 417
      55  Mexico 416
      56  Jordan 415
      57  Moldova 413
      58  Trinidad and Tobago 410
      59  Brazil 405
      60  Colombia 402
      61  Tunisia 401
      62  Montenegro 401
      63  Argentina 401
      64  Kazakhstan 400
      65  Albania 391
      66  Indonesia 383
      67  Qatar 379
      68  Panama 376
      69  Georgia 373
      70  Azerbaijan 373
      71  Peru 369
      72 India Tamil Nadu, India 348
      73  Kyrgyzstan 330
      74 India Himachal Pradesh, India 325
      1 China Shanghai, China 556
      2  South Korea 539
      3  Finland 536
      4  Hong Kong, China 533
      5  Singapore 526
      6  Canada 524
      7  New Zealand 521
      8  Japan 520
      9  Australia 515
      10  Netherlands 508
      11  Belgium 506
      12  Norway 503
      13  Estonia 501
      14  Switzerland 501
      15  Poland 500
      16  Iceland 500
      17  United States 500
      18  Liechtenstein 499
      19  Sweden 497
      20  Germany 497
      21  Ireland 496
      22  France 496
      23  Taiwan 495
      24  Denmark 495
      25  United Kingdom 494
      26  Hungary 494
      27  Portugal 489
      28  Macau, China 487
      29  Italy 486
      30  Latvia 484
      31  Greece 483
      32  Slovenia 483
      33  Spain 481
      34  Czech Republic 478
      35  Slovakia 477
      36  Croatia 476
      37  Israel 474
      38  Luxembourg 472
      39  Austria 470
      40  Lithuania 468
      41  Turkey 464
      42  Russia 459
      43  Chile 449
      44  Costa Rica 443
      45  Malta 442
      46  Serbia 442
      47  United Arab Emirates 431
      48  Bulgaria 429
      49  Uruguay 426
      50  Mexico 425
      51  Romania 424
      52 Venezuela Miranda, Venezuela 422
      53  Thailand 421
      54  Trinidad and Tobago 416
      55  Malaysia 414
      56  Colombia 413
      57  Brazil 412
      58  Montenegro 408
      59  Mauritius 407
      60  Jordan 405
      61  Tunisia 404
      62  Indonesia 402
      63  Argentina 398
      64  Kazakhstan 390
      65  Moldova 388
      66  Albania 385
      67  Georgia 374
      68  Qatar 372
      69  Panama 371
      70  Peru 370
      71  Azerbaijan 362
      72 India Tamil Nadu, India 337
      73 India Himachal Pradesh, India 317
      74  Kyrgyzstan 314

      ^† Participants in PISA 2009+, which were tested in 2010 after the main group of 65.[12]


      Comparison with other studies

      The correlation between PISA 2003 and TIMSS 2003 grade 8 country means is 0.84 in mathematics, 0.95 in science. The values go down to 0.66 and 0.79 if the two worst performing developing countries are excluded. Correlations between different scales and studies are around 0.80. The high correlations between different scales and studies indicate common causes of country differences (e.g. educational quality, culture, wealth or genes) or a homogenous underlying factor of cognitive competence. Western countries perform slightly better in PISA; Eastern European and Asian countries in TIMSS. Content balance and years of schooling explain most of the variation.[13]

      ↑Jump back a section

      Reception

      For many countries, the results from PISA 2000 were surprising. In Germany and the United States, for example, the comparatively low scores brought on heated debate about how the school system should be changed.[citation needed] Some headlines in national newspapers, for example, were:

      The results from PISA 2003 and PISA 2006 were featured in the 2010 documentary Waiting for "Superman".[15]

      China

      Education professor Yong Zhao has noted the PISA 2009 did not receive much attention in the Chinese media, and that the high scores in China are due to excessive workload and testing, adding that it's "no news that the Chinese education system is excellent in preparing outstanding test takers, just like other education systems within the Confucian cultural circle: Singapore, Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong."[16]

      India

      Of the 74 countries tested in the PISA 2009 cycle including the "+" nations, the two Indian states came up 72nd and 73rd out of 74 in both reading and maths, and 73rd and 74th in science. India's poor performance may not be linguistic as some suggested. 12.87% of US students, for example, indicated that the language of the test differed from the language spoken at home. while 30.77% of Himachal Pradesh students indicated that the language of the test differed from the language spoken at home, a significantly higher percent [17] However, unlike American students, those Indian students with a different language at home did better on the PISA test than those with the same language. [18] India's poor performance on the PISA test is consistent with India's poor performance in the only other instance when India's government allowed an international organization to test its students [19] and consistent with India's own testing of its elite students in a study titled Student Learning in the Metro 2006. These studies were conducted using TIMSS questions. The poor result in PISA was greeted with dismay in the Indian media.[20] The BBC reported that as of 2008, only 15% of India's students reach high school.[21]

      India pulled out of the 2012 round of PISA testing, in August, with the Indian government attributing its action to the unfairness of PISA testing to Indian students.[22] The Indian Express reported on 9/3/2012 that "The ministry (of education) has concluded that there was a socio-cultural disconnect between the questions and Indian students. The ministry will write to the OECD and drive home the need to factor in India's "socio-cultural milieu". India's participation in the next PISA cycle will hinge on this".[23] The Indian Express also noted that "Considering that over 70 nations participate in PISA, it is uncertain whether an exception would be made for India".

      ↑Jump back a section

      Research on causes of country differences

      Large international student assessment programs such as PISA and TIMSS have provided essential data for many recent analyses of how student achievement affects society at large, such as economic development,[24]democratization and health.[25]

      Although PISA and TIMSS officials and researchers themselves generally refrain from hypothesizing about the large and stable differences in student achievement between countries, other researchers have investigated single educational factors like central exams[26] private schools or streaming between schools at later age.[27] An extensive literature related to cross-countries difference in scores has also developed since 2000.[1]

      Finland

      The stable, high marks of Finnish students have attracted a lot of attention. According to Hannu Simola[28] the results are due to a paradoxical mix of progressive policies implemented through a rather conservative pedagogic setting, where the high levels of teachers' academic preparation, social status, professionalism and motivation for the job are concomitant with the adherence to traditional roles and methods by both teachers and pupils in Finland's changing, but still rather authoritarian culture. Others have suggested that Finland's low poverty rate is a reason for its success.[29][30]

      Finnish education reformer Pasi Sahlberg suggests that the reason for Finland's high educational achievements is because of the country's focus on access to quality education for all, as opposed to a focus on competition among teachers and schools.[31]Lynn and Meisenberg (2010) found very high correlations (r>0.90) between mean student assessment results from PISA, TIMSS, PIRLS and others and IQ measurements at the country data level.[32]

      An evaluation of the 2003 results showed that countries that spent more on education did not necessarily do better. Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and the Netherlands spent less but did relatively well, whereas the United States spent much more but was below the OECD average. The Czech Republic, in the top ten, spent only one third as much per student as the United States did, for example, but the USA came 24th out of 29 countries compared.[citation needed]

      Another point made in the evaluation was that students with higher-earning parents are better-educated and tend to achieve higher results. This was true in all the countries tested, although more obvious in certain countries, such as Germany.[citation needed]

      China

      In 2010, the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) results revealed that Shanghai students scored the highest in the world in every category (Mathematics, Reading and Science). The OECD described Shanghai as a pioneer of educational reform, noting that "there has been a sea change in pedagogy". OECD point out that they "abandoned their focus on educating a small elite, and instead worked to construct a more inclusive system. They also significantly increased teacher pay and training, reducing the emphasis on rote learning and focusing classroom activities on problem solving."[33]

      OECD has also noted that even in rural China results approached average levels for the OECD countries: "Citing further, as-yet unpublished OECD research, Mr Schleicher said, 'We have actually done Pisa in 12 of the provinces in China. Even in some of the very poor areas you get performance close to the OECD average.'"[34] For a developing country, China’s 99.4% enrolment in primary education is already, as the OECD puts it, “the envy of many countries” while junior secondary school participation rates in China are now 99%. But in Shanghai not only has senior secondary school enrolment attained 98% but admissions into higher education have achieved 80% of the relevant age group. That this growth reflects quality, not just quantity, is confirmed clearly by the OECD’s ranking of Shanghai’s secondary education as world number one.[34] According to the OECD, China has also expanded school access, and moved away from learning by rote.[35] "'The last point is key: Russia performs well in rote-based assessments, but not in Pisa,' says Schleicher, head of the indicators and analysis division at the OECD’s directorate for education. 'China does well in both rote-based and broader assessments.'"[34]

      United States

      Two studies have compared high achievers in mathematics on the PISA and the U.S. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Comparisons were made between those scoring at the "advanced" and "proficient" levels in mathematics on the NAEP with the corresponding performance on the PISA. Overall, 30 nations had higher percentages than the U.S. of students at the "advanced" level of mathematics. The only OECD countries with worse results were Portugal, Greece, Turkey, and Mexico. Six percent of U.S. students were "advanced" in mathematics compared to 28 percent in Taiwan. The highest ranked state in the U.S. (Massachusetts) was just 15th in the world if it was compared with the nations participating in the PISA. 31 nations had higher percentages of "proficient" students than the U.S. Massachusetts was again the best U.S. state, but it ranked just ninth in the world if compared with the nations participating in the PISA.[36][37]

      Comparisons with results for the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) appear to give different results—suggesting that the U.S. states actually do better in world rankings.[38] The difference in apparent rankings is, however, almost entirely accounted for by the sampling of countries. PISA includes all of the OECD countries, while TIMSS is much more weighted in its sampling toward developing countries.

      Poverty

      University of Southern California professor Stephen Krashen[39] and Mel Riddile of the NASSP say that low performance in the United States is closely related to American poverty, but the same reasoning applies to other countries.[29][30]

      Reduced school lunch participation is the only available intra-poverty indicator for US schoolchildren; areas with less than 10% of the students having free or reduced price lunch averaged 551 (higher than any other OECD country). In comparison with the rest other OECD countries (which have tabled figures on children living in relative poverty):[30]

      Country Percent of reduced school lunches (US)[30]

      Percent of relative child poverty (Other OECD countries)[40]

      PISA score[41]
      United States < 10% 551
      Finland 3.4% 536
      Netherlands 9.0% 508
      Belgium 6.7% 506
      United States 10%–24.9% 527
      Canada 13.6% 524
      New Zealand 16.3% 521
      Japan 14.3% 520
      Australia 11.6% 515
      United States 25–49.9% 502
      Estonia 40.1% 501
      United States 50–74.9% 471
      Russian Federation 58.3% 459
      United States > 75% 446

      Portugal

      According to OECD's PISA, the average Portuguese 15-year-old student was for many years underrated and underachieving in reading literacy, mathematics and science knowledge in the OECD, nearly tied with the Italian and just above those from countries like Greece, Turkey and Mexico. However, since 2010, PISA results for Portuguese students improved dramatically. The Portuguese Ministry of Education announced a 2010 report published by its office for education evaluation GAVE (Gabinete de Avaliação do Ministério da Educação) which criticized the results of PISA 2009 report and claimed that the average Portuguese teenage student had profund handicaps in terms of expression, communication and logic, as well as a low performance when asked to solve problems. They also claimed that those fallacies are not exclusive of Portugal but occur in other countries due to the way PISA was designed.[42]

      ↑Jump back a section

      References

      1. ^ a b Hanushek, Eric A., and Ludger Woessmann. 2011. "The economics of international differences in educational achievement." In Handbook of the Economics of Education, Vol. 3, edited by Eric A. Hanushek, Stephen Machin, and Ludger Woessmann. Amsterdam: North Holland: 89-200.
      2. ^ PISA 2009 Technical Report, 2012, OECD, http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/60/31/50036771.pdf
      3. ^ Chapter 2 of the publication "PISA 2003 Assessment Framework", pdf
      4. ^ http://www.oecd.org/document/34/0,3343,en_2649_35845621_44949730_1_1_1_1,00.html
      5. ^ C. Füller: Pisa hat einen kleinen, fröhlichen Bruder. taz, 5.12.2007 [1]
      6. ^ The scaling procedure is described in nearly identical terms in the Technical Reports of PISA 2000, 2003, 2006. It is similar to procedures employed in NAEP and TIMSS. According to J. Wuttke Die Insignifikanz signifikanter Unterschiede. (2007, in German), the description in the Technical Reports is incomplete and plagued by notational errors.
      7. ^ PISA 2009. http://www.pisa.oecd.org/document/61/0,3746,en_32252351_32235731_46567613_1_1_1_1,00.html
      8. ^ OECD (2001) p. 53; OECD (2004a) p. 92; OECD (2007) p. 56.
      9. ^ E.g. OECD (2001), chapters 7 and 8: Influence of school organization and socio-economic background upon performance in the reading test. Reading was the main domain of PISA 2000.
      10. ^ Multi-dimensional Data Request, OECD, 2010, retrieved 2012-06-28 
      11. ^ PISA 2009 Results: Executive Summary (Figure 1 only), OECD, 2010, retrieved 2012-06-28 
      12. ^ Walker, Maurice (2011), PISA 2009 Plus Results, OECD, retrieved 2012-06-28 
      13. ^ M. L. Wu: A Comparison of PISA and TIMSS 2003 achievement results in Mathematics. Paper presented at the AERA Annual Meeting, New York, March, 2008. [2].
      14. ^ Preocupe-se. Seu filho é mal educado Veja, November 7, 2007, retrieved April 13, 2013 (Breton)
      15. ^ "Waiting for "Superman" trailer". Retrieved October 8, 2010. 
      16. ^ Yong Zhao (2010-12-10), A True Wake-up Call for Arne Duncan: The Real Reason Behind Chinese Students Top PISA Performance 
      17. ^ http://pisa2009.acer.edu.au/interactive_results.php
      18. ^ http://pisa2009.acer.edu.au/interactive_results.php
      19. ^ http://ddp-ext.worldbank.org/EdStats/INDprwp08b.pdf
      20. ^ Vishnoi, Anubhuti (2012-01-07), Poor PISA ranks: HRD seeks reason, The Indian Express 
      21. ^ Masani, Zareer (February 27, 2008). "India still Asia's reluctant tiger". BBC News. 
      22. ^ http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-08-03/mumbai/33019239_1_india-backs-global-stage-math-and-science
      23. ^ http://www.indianexpress.com/news/poor-pisa-score-govt-blames--disconnect--with-india/996890/
      24. ^ Hanushek, Eric; Woessmann, Ludger (2008), "The role of cognitive skills in economic development", Journal of Economic Literature 46 (3): 607–668, doi:10.1257/jel.46.3.607 
      25. ^ Rindermann, Heiner; Ceci, Stephen J (2009), "Educational policy and country outcomes in international cognitive competence studies", Perspectives on Psychological Science 4 (6): 551–577, doi:10.1111/j.1745-6924.2009.01165.x 
      26. ^ Bishop, John H (1997), "The effect of national standards and curriculum-based exams on achievement", American Economic Review 87 (2): 260–264 
      27. ^ Hanushek, Eric; Woessmann, Ludger (2006), "Does educational tracking affect performance and inequality? Differences-in-differences evidence across countries", Economic Journal 116 (510): C63–C76 
      28. ^ Simola, H. (2005). The Finnish miracle of PISA: Historical and sociological remarks on teaching and teacher education. Comparative Education, 41, 455-470.
      29. ^ a b "The Economics Behind International Education Rankings" National Educational Association
      30. ^ a b c d Riddile, Mel (2010-12-15), PISA: It's Poverty Not Stupid, National Association of Secondary School Principals 
      31. ^ http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/12/what-americans-keep-ignoring-about-finlands-school-success/250564/
      32. ^ Lynn, R. & Meisenberg, G. (2010). National IQs calculated and validated for 108 nations. Intelligence, 38, 353-360.
      33. ^ Gumbel, Peter (2010-12-07), China Beats Out Finland for Top Marks in Education, TIME, retrieved 2012-06-27 
      34. ^ a b c Cook, Chris (2010-12-07), Shanghai tops global state school rankings, Financial Times, retrieved 2012-06-28 
      35. ^ Mance, Henry (2010-12-07), Why are Chinese schoolkids so good?, Financial Times, retrieved 2012-06-28 
      36. ^ Paul E. Peterson, Ludger Woessmann, Eric A. Hanushek, and Carlos X. Lastra-Anadón (2011) "Are U.S. students ready to compete? The latest on each state’s international standing." Education Next 11, no. 4 (Fall): 51-59. http://educationnext.org/are-u-s-students-ready-to-compete/
      37. ^ Eric A. Hanushek, Paul E. Peterson, and Ludger Woessmann (2011) "Teaching math to the talented." Education Next 11, no. 1 (Winter): 10-18. http://educationnext.org/teaching-math-to-the-talented/
      38. ^ Gary W. Phillips (2007) Chance favors the prepared mind: Mathematics and science indicators for comparing states. Washington: American Institutes for Research (November 14); Gary W. Phillips (2009) The Second Derivative:International Benchmarks in Mathematics For U.S. States and School Districts. Washington, DC: American Institutes for Research (June).
      39. ^ "How poverty affected U.S. PISA scores" The Washington Post
      40. ^ "Child poverty statistics: how the UK compares to other countries", The Guardian. The same UNICEF figures were used by Riddile.
      41. ^ Highlights From PISA 2009, Table 3.
      42. ^ (Portuguese) Estudo do ministério aponta graves problemas aos alunos portugueses, GAVE (Gabinete de Avaliação do Ministério da Educação) 2010 report in RTP
      ↑Jump back a section

      Further reading

      Official websites and reports

      • OECD/PISA website
        • OECD (1999): Measuring Student Knowledge and Skills. A New Framework for Assessment. Paris: OECD, ISBN 92-64-17053-7 [4]
        • OECD (2001): Knowledge and Skills for Life. First Results from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2000.
        • OECD (2003a): The PISA 2003 Assessment Framework. Mathematics, Reading, Science and Problem Solving Knowledge and Skills. Paris: OECD, ISBN 978-92-64-10172-2 [5]
        • OECD (2004a): Learning for Tomorrow's World. First Results from PISA 2003. Paris: OECD, ISBN 978-92-64-00724-6 [6]
        • OECD (2004b): Problem Solving for Tomorrow's World. First Measures of Cross-Curricular Competencies from PISA 2003. Paris: OECD, ISBN 978-92-64-00642-3
        • OECD (2005): PISA 2003 Technical Report. Paris: OECD, ISBN 978-92-64-01053-6
        • OECD (2007): Science Competencies for Tomorrow's World: Results from PISA 2006 [7]

      Reception and political consequences

      • A. P. Jakobi, K. Martens: Diffusion durch internationale Organisationen: Die Bildungspolitik der OECD. In: K. Holzinger, H. Jörgens, C. Knill: Transfer, Diffusion und Konvergenz von Politiken. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2007.

      France

      • N. Mons, X. Pons: The reception and use of Pisa in France.

      Germany

      • E. Bulmahn [then federal secretary of education]: PISA: the consequences for Germany. OECD observer, no. 231/232, May 2002. pp. 33–34.
      • H. Ertl: Educational Standards and the Changing Discourse on Education: The Reception and Consequences of the PISA Study in Germany. Oxford Review of Education, v 32 n 5 pp 619–634 Nov 2006.

      United Kingdom

      • S. Grek, M. Lawn, J. Ozga: Study on the Use and Circulation of PISA in Scotland. [8]

      Criticism

      Books

      • S. Hopmann, G. Brinek, M. Retzl (eds.): PISA zufolge PISA. PISA According to PISA. LIT-Verlag, Wien 2007, ISBN 3-8258-0946-3 (partly in German, partly in English)
      • T. Jahnke, W. Meyerhöfer (eds.): PISA & Co – Kritik eines Programms. Franzbecker, Hildesheim 2007 (2nd edn.), ISBN 978-3-88120-464-4 (in German)
      • R. Münch: Globale Eliten, lokale Autoritäten: Bildung und Wissenschaft unter dem Regime von PISA, McKinsey & Co. Frankfurt am Main : Suhrkamp, 2009. ISBN 978-3-518-12560-1 (in German)

      Websites

      ↑Jump back a section

      External links

      ↑Jump back a section
      Last modified on 23 May 2013, at 20:24