The PISA program was established in 2000 by the OECD to assess the education systems around the world by testing the skills of 15-year-old students. Program for international student assessment (PISA) majorly covers mathematics, science, reading literacy, and cross-curricular competencies like collaborative problem solving, financial literacy, global competency, creative thinking, etc. It focuses on education policy and international competitiveness.
Several countries worldwide participate in PISA, like Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, the United States, etc. PISA happens every three years, and the 2022 edition is the eighth edition of PISA.
Why is PISA significant?
- The PISA result shows how the students' socioeconomic factors, discipline, attendance, school climate, etc., are correlated.
- It helps schools understand the degree to which students can apply their knowledge in real-life situations and their ability to reason and communicate. It focuses on mastering processes, understanding concepts, and the ability to function in different situations. This international school test is an adaptive assessment that helps school leaders understand the ability of critical thinking of their 15-year-old students and how they apply that knowledge.
- The mathematical literacy of PISA emphasizes indicators like how effectively a student uses mathematics in civic, personal, and professional areas.
- Reading competencies of PISA indicates the capacity to understand, use and reflect, develop the potential and participate in the betterment of society. This test doesn't measure the memorization of facts but how to draw knowledge from that and apply it in real life.
- The PISA performance of OECD countries is a trigger event for bringing educational reforms at a large scale and bringing out much-needed improvement because countries treat PISA evaluation as the standard of the education system.
- This assessment is also seen as the measure to understand the children's capacity to examine local, global and intercultural issues by understanding and appreciating the diverse perspective and views, effective interactions and debates, and acting for the collective well-being and sustainable development.
- The schools that get selected for PISA participation are the national representative. School size and types, like independent, middle, secondary, urban, rural, etc., are considered.
- There is continuous evolution in the way student performance reporting in PISA.
What makes PISA unique?
It is the most comprehensive international program that assesses student performance and has a quality questionnaire about student data, family, and background information. Its policy orientation, innovative concept of literacy, relevance to lifelong learning, and regularity are some of the features that make PISA a unique assessment among other international programs. The relevance of PISA is confirmed by various studies conducted over the years in countries like Australia, Canada, Denmark, etc.
Conclusion
Each nation strives to be best at providing education to its citizens because tomorrow's economy will result from today's education standards. Every country aims to compete for a world-class education. PISA shows where a country stands in imparting education to its students by analyzing them based on the abovementioned factors. Pisa is the result of collaborative effort and cooperation from students, teachers, and principals of the participating schools to make it a success. PISA policy is changing according to the need for the evolution of exams by grouping them with the best technical expertise available in different domains. Countries participating in the International School Test ensure that the implementation of PISA at the national level is monitored thoroughly by Nation Project Managers at the national level.