Overview of PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) 2012 Highlights

• In Event: Comparison of 67 Countries in Achievement and Noncognitive Factors: Highlights of PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) 2012

Abstract

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) was commissioned by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in the late 1990s as an ongoing, periodic international comparative study of the proficiency in Mathematics, Science and Reading of 15 year old students. PISA is managed and directed cooperatively by the OECD member countries, and in cooperation with a large and increasing number of non-member countries, referred to as partner countries.
PISA surveys take place every three years. The first survey took place during 2000, and the most recent, the fifth, in 2012; the results of these surveys have been published through the study’s initial reports and a wide range of thematic and technical reports. The results for PISA 2012 are embargoed until December 2013.
PISA is an age-based survey, assessing 15-year-old students in school in grade seven or higher. These students are approaching the end of compulsory schooling in most participating countries and school enrolment at this level is close to universal in almost all OECD countries.
For each assessment the three areas Mathematics, Science and Reading have been assessed and they have been reported on a common scale that is comparable over the five assessments.
By drawing upon data from all five assessments -- the data set includes in excess 1,000,000 15-year-old students from more than 60 countries --this paper will provide a summary of the central outcomes of PISA. The outcomes of PISA 2012 and its contribution to the PISA-based knowledge base will be of particular focus as will be trends over time in the level of performance and equity of the world’s education systems. A number of countries have shown consistent trends in performance levels and equity over the five PISA assessments and factors that may have influenced those trends will be presented and discussed.
We will also summarize some of PISA’s key messages and examine the extent to which they are supported by PISA 2012. This will be of special interest in those cases were changes in the PISA methodology – as discussed in other papers in this symposium – could potentially cause a revision of previous findings.

Author

• Raymond J. Adams, Australian Council for Educational Research