The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international comparative study that assesses how well 15-year-olds, who have nearly completed compulsory schooling in most participating educational systems, can use their knowledge and skills to meet real-world opportunities and challenges. In each cycle of PISA, students are…

In a global economy, stakeholders need to keep themselves well-informed in terms of how their local schools perform when compared with schools across the country and around the world. In doing so, they will be able to consider how well their schools are doing in a larger context and identify strengths as well as areas to target for improvement.…

How well are Wake County Public Schools (WCPSS) students prepared for problem-solving, scientific reasoning, and critical thinking? (1) WCPSS schools out-performed both the U.S., national, and international averages in each core subject of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA): mathematics, reading, and science; and (2) overall,…

In some situations, memorisation is useful, even necessary. It can give students enough concrete facts on which to reflect; it can limit anxiety by reducing mathematics to a set of simple facts, rules and procedures; and it can help to develop fluency with numbers early in a child's development, before the child is asked to tackle more complex…

Schools are not just four walls inside of which students learn how to read, write and think. Schools provide a venue where young people meet each other, and where they develop relationships and friendships that may last for decades. At school, students socialise and hone the interpersonal skills that are required to function effectively in the…

Socio-economically advantaged and disadvantaged students are not equally exposed to mathematics problems and concepts at school. Exposure to mathematics at school has an impact on performance, and disadvantaged students' relative lack of familiarity with mathematics partly explains their lower performance. Widening access to mathematics content…

The education sector performs well for information and communication technology (ICT) and problem-solving skills, although it still lags behind the professional, scientific and technical activities sector. Primary and secondary teachers have better ICT and problem-solving skills than the general population, and similar skills to other…

One major issue with large-scale assessments is that the respondents might give no responses to many items, resulting in less accurate estimations of both assessed abilities and item parameters. This report studies how the types of items affect the item-level nonresponse rates and how different methods of treating item-level nonresponses have an…

More than ever, students need to engage with mathematics concepts, think quantitatively and analytically, and communicate using mathematics. All these skills are central to a young person's preparedness to tackle problems that arise at work and in life beyond the classroom. But the reality is that many students are not familiar with basic…

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a system of international assessments that allows countries to compare outcomes of learning as students near the end of compulsory schooling. PISA core assessments measure the performance of 15-year-old students in mathematics, science, and reading literacy every 3 years. Coordinated by…

"PISA 2012 Data Tables, Figures, and Exhibits" is a companion publication to the report entitled: "Performance of U.S. 15-Year-Old Students in Mathematics, Science, and Reading Literacy in an International Context. First Look at PISA 2012. NCES 2014-024". PISA 2012 assessed students' mathematics, reading, and science literacy.…

Results from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD's) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) have shown that the degree to which education systems succeed in equipping students with important foundation skills varies significantly. Since the quality of teaching is at the heart of student learning…

The "Comparative Indicators of Education" report series has been published on a biennial basis since it began in 2002, although this year's is the first to expand its focus to the G-20 countries, having previously been focused on the G-8 countries. "Comparative Indicators of Education in the United States and Other G-20 Countries:…

This report describes how the education system in the United States compares with education systems in the other Group of Eight (G-8) countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom) that are among the world's most economically developed countries and among the United States' largest economic partners.…

This report provides key findings from the 2003 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). The report focuses on the performance of U.S. 15-year-olds in the two major areas assessed in 2003, mathematics literacy and problem solving, compared to their peers in 38 other countries. Information about achievement in reading literacy and…