Programme , International, Student, Assessment

(PISA)
This assessment is run by the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD). Its a test that is
used to evaluate education systems worldwide, by testing
the skills and knowledge of 15yr old students
(www.oecd.org) Worldwide over 510,00 students from 63
countries take this test. The test comprises of the key
subjects Mathematics, Science and English. The test lasts
two hours and is made up of a mixture of open-ended and
multiple-choice questions. With its worldwide prevalence,
underperformances of countries can be viewed as doom
and gloom PISA rankings create panic and discomfort in
practically all countries (Sjoberg, S, 2015, pp.112). This
was evident in an Australian article that came out after
the last results were published the dumbing down of a
generation of Australian teenagers is exposed
(www.news.com.au) was printed, even though only 15,000
15yr old students from around Australia were tested. This
point is should not be dismissed, not every student takes
the test, a reporter even noted that some high scoring
schools taught to the test in order to achieve a good
score (Stephen,M, www.telegraph.co.uk, 2013) . While a
study in Norway had issues with how relevant the test was
worldwide hard to make a test that in a fair and objective
way can be used across countries and cultures to assess
the quality of learning in real-life (pp.113)

In my opinion this test should be taken with a grain of salt.

While media outlets worldwide seem to take great
importance in publishing the results, in reality the size of
the testing pool is extremely small in regard to countries
15 yr old population.