Results From PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) 2012: Mathematics, Reading, and Science Literacy of 15-Year-Olds From Multiple Perspectives

• In Event: Over a Decade of PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment): Findings on the Achievement, Engagement, and Measurement of 15-Year-Olds’ Literacy

Abstract

PISA’s goal is to answer the question, “What knowledge and skills do students have at age 15?” taking into account schooling and other factors that may influence their performance. PISA uses the terminology of “literacy” in each subject area to denote its broad focus on the application of knowledge and skills. For example, when assessing mathematics literacy, PISA assesses how well 15-year-olds can formulate, employ, and interpret mathematics for a variety of purposes and settings.

Each PISA data collection effort assesses one of the three subject areas in depth (considered the major subject area); although all three are assessed in each cycle (the other two subjects are considered minor subject areas for that assessment year). Assessing all three areas allows participating education systems to have an ongoing source of achievement data in every subject area while rotating one area as the main focus over the years. Mathematics literacy was the major subject area in 2003 and then again in 2012.

This presentation will present data from PISA 2012 for the more than 60 participating education systems, including the United States and the three participating U.S. states: Connecticut, Florida, and Massachusetts. Student performance in mathematics literacy (including four mathematics literacy subscales), reading literacy, science literacy, financial literacy, and problem solving will be examined from multiple facets, including mean scores, percentages of students at PISA proficiency levels, and percentile cut point scores. Often, there is great attention paid to the relative standing of participating countries and education systems based on mean scores. While PISA mean scores are important indicators and give an overall perspective of performance in a global setting, PISA data can also examine the distribution of student scores within an education system by using proficiency levels and percentile cut point scores. PISA reports the percentage of students in each country reaching several proficiency levels describing the kinds of skills students demonstrated in the PISA assessment. This analysis reports the percentage of low performing students (defined as those who performed below PISA level 2) and the percentage of high performing students (defined as those who performed at PISA level 5 or above) in mathematics.

While trends in proficiency levels compare the highest- and the lowest-performing students in terms of international benchmarks of what skills they can apply, it is also possible to compare the top and bottom ends of the performance distribution relative to the average student within a country. The 90th percentile indicates the point on the PISA performance scale below which 90 percent of students in a country score or which only 10 percent of students exceed.

Presenting results from a variety of perspectives will provide the audience with a better idea of how student skills are distributed, and a comprehensive understanding of how various countries and education systems performed on PISA 2012. This overview will provide a foundation for further exploration of the PISA 2012 results by other researchers.

Author

• David C. Miller, American Institutes for Research