PISA Assignment: Scotland

Patrick Fernandez
New Jersey City University
EDTC 804: Global Issues in Educational Technology Leadership
Fall 2022
 PISA is an assessment that was created by the Organization for Economic Cooperation

and Development (OECD) in 2000. Since its inception it has PISA has involved more than

90 countries and economies and 3,000 students worldwide (OECD.org). The goal of the

assessment is to examine how 15-year-olds can apply what they have learned in school to real

life situations; it measures performance in three different subject areas including reading,

science and math. In recent years, its results have been used as a benchmark for country’s to

measure one another comparatively.

The country of Scotland makes for an interesting case study to examine, because not

only does Scotland measure itself globally to other developing countries but it also measures

itself regionally among countries in the United Kingdom. As a country included in the United

Kingdom among England, Wales and Northern Ireland its results do have implications for local

and regional educational policy.

Scotland’s results most recently from 2018 have been perceived as positive or mixed

among the Scottish government and educational system. Overall Scotland’s strong performance

came in the subject area of reading, where its mean score was 504 and above OECD average

(gov.scot). Only five countries ranked significantly higher than Scotland in reading worldwide,

while it ranked on par with comparable countries and UK counterparts. Scotland’s mean score

of 504 put them on par with 11 other countries including the United States (504), England (505)

and Northern Ireland (501). Among itself, the 504 mean score was also seen as an

improvement of it’s previous 2015 mean score of 493 (gov.scot).

While still strong overall, Scotland’s mean scores in the subject areas of math and

science were not as strong. Scotland's mean score in Mathematics in 2018 was 489 which was

the average score among all OECD countries. It ranked on par with the likes of Australia (491),

New Zealand (494), Spain (481) and Wales (487). Among its UK peers it ranked third ahead of

Wales but trailed Northern Ireland (492) and England significantly (504). For Scotland their

biggest disappointment comes when it measures itself against past performance; since its
inception math mean scores have declined each year scoring in the 500 range both in 2003 and

2006 and two points lower since its most recent 2016 score of 491.

Lastly in science, Scotland's mean score in 2018 was 490. This was similar to what it

was in 2015 (497), but lower than in 2012 (513), 2009 (514) and 2006 (515). Relative to peers

the mean score in science is still seen as average and on par but among its UK peers it was

lower; with England’s (507), Northern Ireland (491) and Wales (489).

The implications of the mean scores in Scotland depend on who you ask according to

policy makers. While Scotland’s mean scores being very much on par with similar countries

globally; regional comparisons and past performance could lead some to be critical of the state

of Scotland’s educational development. According to the BBC Scotland's recent education

secretary John Swinney said "Pisa doesn't cover everything but today corroborates what we

see elsewhere - improving schools and a closing of the attainment gap.That is down to great

teaching, well-supported pupils and the investment we have made. Much still to do, but well

done everyone on a good result." However policy makers of other local parties like the

Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties have all used different adjectives to

describe the most recent results including “alarming”, “appalling”, “humiliation” and “just

average”. Regardless of political affiliation the Scottish all agree that Scotland’s educational

success is vital to its modern economy and most welcome improved mean scores to where they

have been historically.

References

McIvor, J. (2019, December 3). Pisa: Mixed report for Scottish education in world rankings.
BBC.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-50642855
OECD (2019). PISA 2018 Assessment and Analytical Framework. PISA, OECD Publishing,
Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/b25efab8-en
Scottish Government (2019). Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018:
highlights from Scotland's results. Crown Publishing, Edinburgh
https://www.gov.scot/publications/programme-international-student-assessment-pisa-2018-
highlights-scotlands-results/documents/