PISA

Purpose of the test

What the test looks like: what kind of knowledge/skills does
it test and how
Since the year 2000, every three years, fifteen-year-old students
from randomly selected schools worldwide take tests in the key
subjects: reading, mathematics and science, with a focus on one
subject in each year of assessment. In 2012, some economies also
participated in the optional assessments of Problem Solving and
Financial Literacy.
Students take a test that lasts 2 hours. The tests are a mixture of
open-ended and multiple-choice questions that are organised in
groups based on a passage setting out a real-life situation. A total of
about 390 minutes of test items are covered. Students take
different combinations of different tests.
The students and their school principals also answer questionnaires
to provide information about the students' backgrounds, schools and
learning experiences and about the broader school system and
learning environment.
PISA emphasizes functional skills that students have acquired as
they near the end of compulsory schooling
(https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/faq.asp#10)
What are the findings/outcomes of the test? How are the
results used/who uses them?
PISA provides data from internationally standardized tests that
enables Australia to compare and monitor its performance with that
of other countries. The results from these international and national
assessments monitor the progress towards the goals outlined in the
Educational Goals for Young Australians, which aims to provide
equality and high quality schooling in Australia and suppor young
Australians to become successful learners who acquire the
necessary knowledge, understanding, skills and values for a
productive and rewarding life.
(https://www.acer.edu.au/ozpisa/pisa-australia)
PISA focus on testing students who, at age 15, are nearing the end
of the compulsory years of schooling is particularly appropriate for
reporting against these goals. PISA enables reporting on comparable
performance data every three years, with student oucomes
disaggregated by sex, Indigenous status, geographic location and
indicators of socioeconomic background(
https://www.acer.edu.au/ozpisa/pisa-australia)

PISAwasdesignedtoassistgovernmentstomonitortheoutcomesof

educationsystemsintermsofstudentachievementonaregularbasisand
withinaninternationallyacceptedcommonframework,inotherwords,to
allowthemtocomparehowstudentsintheircountrieswereperforming
onasetofcommontaskscomparedtostudentsinothercountries.Inthis
way,PISAhelpsgovernmentstonotonlyunderstand,butalsoto
enhance,theeffectivenessoftheireducationalsystemsandtolearnfrom
othercountriespractices.(PISAwasdesignedtoassistgovernmentsto
monitortheoutcomesofeducationsystemsintermsofstudent
achievementonaregularbasisandwithinaninternationallyaccepted
commonframework,inotherwords,toallowthemtocomparehow
studentsintheircountrieswereperformingonasetofcommontasks
comparedtostudentsinothercountries.Inthisway,PISAhelps
governmentstonotonlyunderstand,butalsotoenhance,the
effectivenessoftheireducationalsystemsandtolearnfromother
countriespractices.)
Everythreeyears,PISAcollectsinformationonstudentachievementand
contextualinformationaboutstudents,teachersandschools,andderives
educationalindicatorsthatcanmonitordifferences(andsimilarities)over
time.SomeexamplesofhowPISAfindingsarebeingused
internationallyinclude:
Comparisonsofliteracyskillsofstudentsinonecountrytothoseof
studentsinotherparticipatingcountries;
Establishmentofbenchmarksforeducationalimprovement,intermsof
themeanscoresachievedbyothercountriesorintermsofacountrys
capacitytoprovidehighlevelsofequityineducationaloutcomesand
opportunities;and
Understandingtherelativestrengthsandweaknessesofindividual
educationsystems.(https://www.acer.edu.au/ozpisa)
once all the test materials and questionnaires have been returned,
a team of specially trained markers at ACER code all of the openended items, and all data are entered. The data are then sent back
to the PISA consortium and collated with that of other countries to
create an international database. This provides a multitude of
information that is used to inform educational policy. Information
from the questinnaires is used to analyse potential influence on
student performance across and within countries.
every round of PISA assesses a representative sample of 15 year
old students from each participating countryonce samples are
drawn, schools send ACER a list of all age-eligible students, from

whatever year level in which they are enrolled. The National Centre
then randomly samples approximately 50 students to participate in
PISA. (PISA FAQ)
What organization develops the test and what are their
mission & values? Why do they exist? How are they
funded/supported?
In Australia, the Australian Government and all State and Territory
goernments contribute funding for Australias participation in PISA,
and is included in the National Assessment Program.
(https://www.acer.edu.au/ozpisa/pisa-australia)
PISA is coordinated by the OECD, and intergovernmental
organization of industrialized countries.
(https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/faq.asp#10)
The Programme for International Student Assessment was
developed in the mid-1990s by the OECD, and launched officially in
1997, with the first survey taking place in 2000.
The mission of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) is to promote policies that will improve the
economic and social well-being of people around the world.
The OECD provides a forum in which governments can work
together to share experiences and seek solutions to common
problems. We work with governments to understand what drives
economic, social and environmental change. We measure
productivity and global flows of trade and investment. We analyse
and compare data to predict future trends. We set international
standards on a wide range of things, from agriculture and tax to the
safety of chemicals.

The OECDs core values

Objective: Our analyses and recommendations are independent
and evidence-based.
Open: We encourage debate and a shared understanding of critical
global issues.
Bold: We dare to challenge conventional wisdom starting with our
own.
Pioneering: We identify and address emerging and long term
challenges.
Ethical: Our credibility is built on trust, integrity and transparency.

The OECD is funded by its member countries. scale of member

countries' contributions to the OECD core budget to the annual
budget are based on a formula related to the size of each member's
economy. The largest contributor is the United States followed by
Japan. With the approval of the Council, countries may also make
separate contributions to particular programmes not funded from
the main budget.
The size of the annual budget as well as its programme of work are
determined by the Council.ost areas of OECD work through policy
dialogue and consultations.

Tasks

In addition to the differences in purpose and age coverage between

PISA and other international comparative studies, PISA differs from
other assessments in what students are asked to do. PISA focuses on
assessing students' knowledge and skills in reading, mathematics, and
science literacy in the context of everyday situations. That is, PISA
emphasizes the application of knowledge to everyday situations by
asking students to perform tasks that involve interpretation of real-world
materials as much as possible. Analyses based on expert panels'
reviews of mathematics and science items from PISA, TIMSS, and
NAEP indicate that PISA items require multi-step reasoning more often
than either TIMSS or NAEP. The study also shows that PISA
mathematics and science literacy items often involve the interpretation
of charts and graphs or other "real world" material. These tasks reflect
the underlying assumption of PISA: as 15-year-olds begin to make the
transition to adult life, they need to not only comprehend what they read
or to retain particular mathematical formulas or scientific concepts, they
need to know how to apply their knowledge and skills in the many
different situations they will encounter in their lives.
Moreover, NAEP and PISA have different underlying approaches to
mathematics that play out in the operationalization of items. NAEP
focuses more closely on school-based curricular attainment whereas
PISA focuses on literacy, or the use of mathematics in real-word
situations. The implication of this difference is that while the NAEP
assessment is not devoid of real-world contexts, it does not specifically
require them; thus it includes computation items as well as problem
solving items U.S. students are likely to encounter in school. PISA does
not include any computation items (nor any items) that are not placed
within a real-world context and, in that way, may be more
unconventional to some students. PISA items also may have a heavier
reading load, use a greater diversity of visual representations, and
require students to make assumptions or sift through information that is
irrelevant to the problem (i.e., 'mathematize'), whereas NAEP items
typically do not include this aspect. These are thus other ways in which
the assessments differ and explain divergent trend results.
A study comparing the PISA and NAEP (grades 8 and 12) reading
assessments found that PISA and NAEP view reading as a constructive
process and both measure similar cognitive skills. There are differences

between them, though, reflecting in part the different purposes of the

assessments. First, NAEP has longer reading passages than PISA and
asks more questions about each passage, which is possible because of
the NAEP passages' longer length. With regard to cognitive skills, NAEP
has more emphasis on critiquing and evaluating text, while PISA has
more emphasis on locating information. NAEP also measures students'
understanding of vocabulary in context and PISA does not include any
questions of this nature. Finally, NAEP has a greater emphasis on
multiple-choice items compared to PISA and the nature of the openended items differs, where PISA open-ended items call for less
elaboration and support from the text than do those in NAEP.

https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/faq.asp#10