The Policies That Shaped PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) and the Policies That PISA Shaped

• In Event: New Directions in the Study of Global Policy Actors in Education

Abstract

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which the OECD launched in 2000 to monitor learning outcomes across countries, has spurred educational reform and in some cases transformational change in ways that had been unprecedented in preceding decades. With no direct influence on public policy, the OECD it provides evidence, analysis and advice to foster mutual learning.

International comparisons can show what is possible in education. They can foster better understanding of how different education systems address similar problems. And they can also help set meaningful targets in terms of measurable goals achieved by the world’s most successful education systems. While cross-sectional international comparisons alone cannot identify cause-and-effect relationships, they can shed light on key features making them visible among educators, policy makers and the general public. Improvement is arguably one of such central features. Contrary to those who claim that the relative standing of countries mainly reflects social and cultural factors, rapidly improving education systems show educational improvement is possible and indeed quite common.

This research describes the design and impact of PISA, focusing on data from its latest round of assessment in 2012. It presents some general principles agreed upon by participating countries to guide the development and use of PISA. It discusses its impact worldwide and provides specific examples of how governments and stakeholders are using its results and information. Lastly, it presents some of the main results of PISA 2012 particularly those related to the pace of educational improvement.

PISA 2012 offers a unique opportunity to understand how education systems have evolved since 2000. The focus of this research will be on student performance in mathematics in PISA 2012. Each round, PISA focuses the assessment in one of three domains: reading, mathematics and science. In PISA 2000, the focus was on reading, in PISA 2003 on mathematics and in PISA 206 on science. Thus, PISA 2012 offers the first opportunity to look at the evolution of mathematics performance in depth, by comparing it to PISA 2003. In addition to the assessment, PISA 2012 collected a wealth of data on student attitudes and behaviour, including for example perseverance or truancy. For the first time PISA 2012 also collected data on opportunity to learn, particularly exposure and familiarity with formal and applied mathematics.

While emphasizing the usefulness of PISA for benchmarking and monitoring the evolution of educational outcomes across countries, the research will address the following questions: What countries are improving the most? Where is the improvement coming from? Are rapidly improving systems also achieving greater equity in education? What are some of the key features shared among top performing educational system in PISA 2012? What role does opportunity to learn play in student performance in PISA? Is top performance compatible with greater equity and more equal opportunities? Can PISA provide information on educational outcomes beyond student performance in reading, mathematics and science?

Authors

• Andreas Schleicher, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

• Pablo Zoido, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development