Now Available: OECD Releases 2015 PISA Global Education Survey Results, Data From 72 Countries
From the OECD:
Singapore outperforms the rest of the world in the OECD’s latest PISA survey, which evaluates the quality, equity and efficiency of school systems. The top OECD countries were Japan, Estonia, Finland and Canada.
The OECD’s PISA 2015 tested around 540,000 15-year-old students in 72 countries and economies on science, reading, maths and collaborative problem-solving. The main focus was on science, an increasingly important part of today’s economy and society.
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Around 1 in 10 students across OECD countries, and 1 in 4 in Singapore, perform at the highest level in science. Across the OECD, more than one in five students falls short of baseline proficiency: only in Canada, Estonia, Finland, Hong Kong (China), Japan, Macao (China), Singapore and Viet Nam do at least nine out of ten 15-year-old students master the basics that every student should know before leaving school.
Selected Key Findings
Gender Gap
- Gender differences in science tend to be smaller than in reading and mathematics but, on average, in 33 countries and economies, the share of top performers in science is larger among boys than among girls. Finland is the only country in which girls are more likely to be top performers than boys.
- One in four boys and girls reported that they expect to work in a science-related occupation but opt for very different ones: girls mostly seek positions in the health sector and boys in becoming ICT professionals, scientists or engineers.
Equity in education
- Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Hong Kong (China) and Macao (China) achieve high levels of performance and equity in education outcomes.
- Poorer students are 3 times more likely to be low performers than wealthier students, and immigrant students are more than twice as likely as non-immigrants to be low achievers.
- On average across countries with relatively large immigrant student populations, attending a school with a high concentration of immigrant students is not associated with poorer student performance, after accounting for the school’s students socio-economic level.
Students’ performance in reading and mathematics
- Nearly 20% of students in OECD countries, on average, do not attain the baseline level of proficiency in reading. This proportion has remained stable since 2009.
- On average across OECD countries, the gender gap in reading in favour of girls narrowed by 12 points between 2009 and 2015: boys’ performance improved, particularly among the highest-achieving boys, while girls’ performance deteriorated, particularly among the lowest-achieving girls.
- More than one in four students in Beijing-Shanghai-Jiangsu-Guangdong (China), Hong Kong (China), Singapore and Chinese Taipei are top-performing students in mathematics, a higher share than anywhere else.
School performance
- How much time students spend learning and how science is taught are even more strongly associated with science performance and the expectations of pursuing a science-related career than how well-equipped and staffed the science department is and science teachers’ qualifications.
- Students in larger schools score higher in science and are more likely than students in smaller schools to expect to work in a science-related occupation in the future. But students in smaller schools reported a better disciplinary climate in their science lessons and they are less likely than students in larger schools to skip days of school and arrive late for school, after accounting for schools’ and students’ socio-economic status.
- Thirty countries and economies used grade repetition less frequently in 2015 than in 2009; in only five countries did the incidence of grade repetition increase during the period. The use of grade repetition decreased by at least 10 percentage points in Costa Rica, France, Indonesia, Latvia, Macao (China), Malta, Mexico and Tunisia.
Resources
Reports
Volume I: Excellence and Equity in Education
English | French | German
Volume II: Policies and Practices for Successful Schools
English
PISA 2015 Results in Focus
English | French | Spanish
Data
Interactive Data Explorer, Documentation, Complete Database
Country-specific overviews
Brazil English | Portuguese
Colombia English
France French
Germany English | German
Indonesia English
Italy English
Japan English | Japanese
Mexico English | Spanish
Sweden English
United Kingdom English
United States English
US (Massachusetts) English
Profiles of 3 High Performers
China
Estonia
Singapore
Special Report
Education in China: A Snapshot
68 pages; PDF.
Questions and Answers
PISA FAQ
What is PISA?, Key Findings From Previous Reports
The PISA Test
Questions and Additional Info
Additional Resources
PISA Website
See Also: From the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)(U.S.)
Performance of U.S. 15-Year-Old Students in Science, Reading, and Mathematics Literacy in an International Context: First Look at PISA 2015
Highlights From TIMSS and TIMSS Advanced 2015 Mathematics and Science Achievement of U.S. Students in Grades 4 and 8 and in Advanced Courses at the End of High School in an International Context (via National Center for Education Statistics)
Released November 29, 2016.
Additional Resources From International Activities Program (NCES)
OECD PISA Summary Video
U.S. Data/Report From National Center For Education Statistics
Direct to Full Text Report (42 pages; PDF)
Today, the National Center for Education Statistics released results from the 2015 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA is a triennial international assessment of 15-year-old students that measures science, reading, and mathematics literacy.
The latest results of PISA show that average science and reading scores for U.S. 15-year-olds in 2015 were not measurably different from any of the previous comparison years, while mathematics literacy scores declined. Results also show average science and reading scores are not measurably different from the OECD average, while the mathematics average score was below the OECD average.
Additionally, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Puerto Rico participated in the 2015 assessment as international benchmarking systems and received separate scores from the U.S. Massachusetts’s average scores were higher than the U.S. and OECD average scores in all three subjects; North Carolina’s average scores were not measurably different from the U.S. average scores for all three subjects; and Puerto Rico’s average scores were lower than both the average U.S. scores and the OECD average scores for all three subjects.
In 2015, 70 education systems participated in the assessment. PISA is coordinated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and conducted in the United States by NCES.
Other key findings from the report:
Science Literacy
• Average scores in science literacy ranged from 556 in Singapore to 332 in the Dominican Republic. The U.S. average score was 496. This was not different from the OECD average of 493.
• The U.S. average was lower than the average in 18 education systems, was higher than 39 education systems, and was not measurably different from 12 education systems. It was not measurably different than scores from earlier assessments (2006, 2009, and 2012)
• The U.S. average was lower than Massachusetts (529), not measurably different from North Carolina (502), and higher than Puerto Rico (403).
• Percentages of top-performing 15-year-old students (those scoring at PISA proficiency levels 5 and above) in science literacy ranged from 24 percent in Singapore to rounding to 0 in 10 education systems. In the United States, 9 percent of 15-year-old students scored at proficiency levels 5 and above, which was not measurably different than the OECD average of 8 percent.
• The U.S. percentage of top performers in science literacy was lower than 14 education systems, not measurably different from 15 education systems, and higher than 34 education systems.
• The overall U.S. percentage of top performers was lower than in Massachusetts (14 percent), and not measurably different than in North Carolina (9 percent).
• In the United States, 20 percent of U.S. 15-year-old students scored below level 2, which is considered below the baseline of proficiency by the OECD; this was not measurably different from the OECD average of 21 percent.
• The U.S. percentage of low performers was higher than 21 education systems, lower than 37 education systems, and not measurably different from 11 education systems. The percentage of 15-year-old students performing below PISA proficiency level 2 ranged from 6 percent in Vietnam to 86 percent in the Dominican Republic.
• The percentage of low performers in science in the United States overall (20 percent) was higher than Massachusetts (12 percent), not measurably different from North Carolina (18 percent); and lower than Puerto Rico (55 percent).
Reading Literacy
• Average scores in reading literacy ranged from 535 in Singapore to 347 in Lebanon. The U.S. average score was 497, which was not measurably different from the OECD average of 493.
• The U.S. average was lower than the averages in 14 education systems, higher than 42 education systems, and not measurably different from 13 education systems.
• The U.S. reading literacy average score in 2015 was not measurably different from any earlier comparable time point (2000, 2003, 2009, and 2012).
• The U.S. average was lower than Massachusetts (527), not measurably different from North Carolina (500), and higher than Puerto Rico (410).
• Percentages of top performing 15-year-old students (those scoring at PISA proficiency levels 5 and above) in reading literacy ranged from 18 percent in Singapore to rounding to 0 in 5 education systems. Ten percent of U.S. 15-year-olds scored at levels 5 and above in reading literacy, which was not measurably different from the OECD average of 8 percent.
• The U.S. percentage of top performers in reading literacy was higher than the percentage of top performers in 40 educations systems, not measurably different from 16 systems, and lower than in 8 systems.
• The overall U.S. percentage of top performers (10 percent) was lower than the percentage in Massachusetts (14 percent), not measurably different from North Carolina (10 percent), and higher than in Puerto Rico (1 percent).
• In reading literacy, the percentage of 15-year-old students performing below PISA proficiency level 2, which is considered below the baseline of proficiency by the OECD, ranged from 9 percent in Hong Kong (China) to 79 percent in Algeria. Nineteen percent of U.S. 15-year-olds scored below level 2, which was not measurably different from the OECD average of 20 percent.
• The U.S. percentage of low performers was higher than in 14 education systems, lower than in 36 education systems, and not measurably different from 19 education systems.
• The percentage of low performers in reading literacy in the United States overall (19 percent) was higher than the percentage in Massachusetts (11 percent), not measurably different from North Carolina (18 percent, and lower than in Puerto Rico (50 percent).
Mathematics Literacy
• Average scores in mathematics literacy ranged from 564 in Singapore to 328 in the Dominican Republic. The U.S. average score of 470 was lower than the OECD average of 490.
• The U.S. average score in mathematics literacy was lower than the averages in 36 education systems, higher than the averages in 28 education systems, and not measurably different from 5 education systems.
• The U.S. average was lower than the average in Massachusetts (500), not measurably different from North Carolina (471), and higher than in Puerto Rico (378).
• The U.S. mathematics literacy average score in 2015 was 12 points lower than the average score in 2012 and 18 points lower than the average in 2009, but was not measurably different from the U.S. average mathematics literacy scores in 2003 and 2006.
• Percentages of top performing 15-year-old students (those scoring at PISA proficiency levels 5 and above) in mathematics literacy ranged from 35 percent in Singapore to rounding to 0 in 5 education systems. In the United States, 6 percent of 15-year-olds scored at levels 5 and above in mathematics literacy, which was lower than the OECD average of 11 percent.
• The U.S. percentage of top performers in mathematics literacy was lower than the percentages in 36 education systems, higher than in 24 education systems, and not measurably different from 6 education systems.
• The U.S. percentage of top performers in mathematics literacy (6 percent) was lower than the percentage in Massachusetts (10 percent) and was not measurably different from North Carolina (6 percent).
• The percentage of 15-year-old students performing below PISA proficiency level 2, which is considered below the baseline of proficiency by the OECD, ranged from 7 percent in Macau (China) to 91 percent in the Dominican Republic. In the United States, 29 percent of 15-year-old students scored below level 2, which was higher than the OECD average of 23 percent.
• The percentage of U.S. low performers in mathematics literacy was higher than in 35 education systems, lower than in 28 education systems, and not measurably different from 6 education systems.
• The percentage of low performers in the United States overall (29 percent) was higher than in Massachusetts (17 percent), was not measurably different from North Carolina (29 percent), and was lower than in Puerto Rico (73 percent).
Direct to Full Text Report (42 pages; PDF)
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About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.