PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) is an evaluation study created by the Organisation for Economic and Cooperation Development (OECD) in 2000, and whose goal is to evaluate education systems across the world. It is administered every 3 years to 15-year-old students of 60 countries. It aims at testing key subjects, such as reading, mathematics and science (one subject is chosen each year). The PISA study doesn’t link the test to the school curriculum and, through a background questionnaire filled by both the students and schools’ principals, it is able to provide the context.

“The tests are designed to assess how well students, at the end of compulsory education, can apply their knowledge to real-life situations and can therefore fully participate in society” (retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/pisa/aboutpisa.htm).

The data issued by the PISA study can be used by governments to to shape their policy making. Its main objective is to provide “cross-nationally comparable evidence of students performance on the skills that are judged to be important for adult life” (Breakspear, 2014, pp. 5).

From the use and the analysis of the PISA indicators, 3 tensions have emerged for policy making (Breakspear, 2014):

1. politics of reform
2. definition of policy problem and targets
3. direction of policy learning

Politics of reform

Every 3 years, when the results of the PISA studies are published, a discussion on school reforms arises globally, as the data set is considered to be highly credible. When the overall results are below expectations, some countries enacted some large-scale policy changes. This happened for example in Germany, Denmark and Japan, where substantial reforms in education followed the debate.

Policy problem and targets

PISA indicators are able to quantify and simplify problems in education systems (Breakspear, 2014) by showing when performances are improving, decreasing or being stable in one area (reading, mathematics and science) of an education system of a given country. Policy makers can therefore assess the performance of their system and understand the areas that need interventions. The PISA results are also used to evaluate reforms that have been implemented and set future performance benchmarks and educational targets (Breakspear, 2014).

Policy learning

Analysing PISA results of high-performing education system, other countries can use them as reference and learn, in order to improve their systems.

STRENGHTS:

• These three tensions can have a positive impact on those countries that perform average or low : they can “borrow” these policies that have worked and implement them in their systems.
• The PISA results generate discussions among policy makers, educational researchers and practitioners, about the education systems and the potential need of reforms to foster improvement.

WEAKNESS

• Government and policy makers have “copied” bits and pieces of these high performing countries with no policy coherence or without considering the cultural context (Breakspear, 2014).
• The performance of an education system cannot be reduced to the assessment of 15 years old children in three specific areas. Other domain should factor in, such as social and emotional development, health and wellbeing, intra and interpersonal skills, etc. (Breakspear, 2014).

SOURCES:

https://www.oecd.org/pisa/aboutpisa.htm

Breakspear, S. (2014, November). How does PISA shape education policy making? Why how we measure learning determines what counts in education. In Centre for Strategic Education Seminar Series Paper (Vol. 40).