Program for International Student Assessment

What is PISA?

"The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international assessment that measures 15-year-old students' reading, mathematics, and science literacy. PISA also includes measures of general or cross-curricular competencies, such as problem solving. PISA emphasizes functional skills that students have acquired as they near the end of compulsory schooling. PISA is coordinated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an intergovernmental organization of industrialized countries and is conducted in the United States by NCES. PISA was first administered in 2000 and is conducted every three years. The most recent assessment was in 2015. source: http://www.oecd.org/education/pisa-2015-results-volume-iii-9789264273856-en.htm

Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) International Study 2012 and 2015

What does the data say? 2015 Results

Most teenagers happy with their lives but schoolwork anxiety and bullying an issue

19/4/2017 - Teenagers who feel part of a school community and enjoy good relations with their parents and teachers are more likely to perform better academically and be happier with their lives, according to the first OECD PISA assessment of students’ well-being.

Students’ Well-Being: PISA 2015 Results analyses for the first time students’ motivation to perform well in school, their relationships with peers and teachers, their home life, and how they spend their time outside of school. The findings are based on a survey of 540,000 students in 72 participating countries and economies who also completed the main OECD PISA 2015 test on science, mathematics and reading.

Many students are very anxious about school work and tests and the analysis reveals this is not related to the number of school hours or the frequency of tests but with how supportive they feel their teachers and schools to be: on average across OECD countries, 59% of students reported they often worry that taking a test will be difficult, and 66% reported feeling stressed about poor grades. Some 55% of students say they are very anxious for a test even if they are well prepared. In all countries, girls reported greater schoolwork-related anxiety than boys; and anxiety about schoolwork, homework and tests is negatively related to performance.

Teachers play a big role in creating the conditions for students’ well-being at school and governments should not define the role of teachers solely through the number of instruction hours. Happier students tend to report positive relations with their teachers. Students in schools where life satisfaction is above the national average reported a higher level of support from their teacher than students in schools where life satisfaction is below average.

“These findings show how teachers, schools and parents can make a real difference to children’s well-being,” said OECD Chief of Staff Gabriela Ramos, launching the report in London. “Together they can help young people develop a sense of control over their future and the resilience they need to be successful in life. There is no secret, you perform better if you feel valued, if you feel well treated, if you are given a hand to succeed!”

What the data tell us? (2012 data results)

• Students whose parents have high expectations for them – who expect them to earn a university degree and work in a professional or managerial capacity later on – tend to have more perseverance, greater intrinsic motivation to learn mathematics, and more confidence in their own ability to solve mathematics problems than students of similar socio-economic status and academic performance, but whose parents hold less ambitious expectations for them.

• While four out of five students in OECD countries agree or strongly agree that they feel happy at school or that they feel like they belong at school, not all students are equally likely to report a strong sense of belonging: on average across OECD countries, for example, 78% of disadvantaged but 85% of advantaged students agree or strongly agree with the statement “I feel like I belong at school”.

• Although the vast majority of students reported a strong sense of belonging, more than one in three students in OECD countries reported that they had arrived late for school in the two weeks prior to the PISA test; and more than one in four students reported that they had skipped a class or a day of school during the same period.

• lack of punctuality and truancy are negatively associated with student performance: on average across OECD countries, arriving late for school is associated with a 27-point lower score in mathematics, while skipping classes or days of school is associated with a 37-point lower score in mathematics – the equivalent of almost one full year of formal schooling.

• Students who are open to solving mathematics problems – who feel that they can handle a lot of information, are quick to understand things, seek explanations for things, can easily link facts together, and like to solve complex problems – score 30 points higher in mathematics, on average, than those who are less open to problem solving. Among high achievers, the difference between the two groups of students is even greater – an average of 38 score points.

• Across most countries and economies, socio-economically disadvantaged students not only score lower in mathematics, they also reported lower levels of engagement, drive, motivation and self-beliefs. Resilient students, disadvantaged students who achieve at high levels, break this link; in fact, they share many of the characteristics of advantaged high- achievers.

• Better teacher-student relations are strongly associated with greater student engagement with and at school.

• One way that a student’s negative self-belief can manifest itself is in anxiety towards mathematics. Some 30% of students reported that they feel helpless when doing mathematics problems: 25% of boys, 35% of girls, 35% of disadvantaged students, and 24% of advantaged students reported feeling that way.

• PISA results show that even when girls perform as well as boys in mathematics, they tend to report less perseverance, less openness to problem solving, less intrinsic and instrumental motivation to learn mathematics, less self-belief in their ability to learn mathematics and more anxiety about mathematics than boys, on average; they are also more likely than boys to attribute failure in mathematics to themselves rather than to external factors.