why PISA is important ...

You probably have to work in the field of international education (as I do) to anticipate the results of an obscure exam given by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development -OECD.

Or perhaps you don’t ... as this important test says a lot about global education and who’s ahead in the knowledge race.

The OECD coordinates the PISA assessment every three years. The acronym stands for Program of International Student Assessment and it is one of just a very few instruments that test students in many countries on the same material.

PISA is given to 15 year olds - those near the end of compulsory education - in the 30 OECD countries and 27 others, thus reaching a significant proportion of the world’s population. PISA was first administered in 2000 and then again in 2003. The latest results (2006) are obviously the third batch and the comparative data is starting to accumulate. The results were announced earlier this month.

PISA measures things differently than other assessments. PISA emphasizes the application of knowledge by presenting students with tasks that involve interpretation of real-world material as much as possible. PISA tests students’ abilities in several areas: math, science and reading.

Apparently wealth doesn’t matter as both the United States and Britain scored lower than the OECD average. The reason perhaps is because both countries have high levels of immigrants and local resources (good teachers, technology, facilities etc) are not evenly distributed across the board.

[The Clermont Blog suggests that all is not lost for America as its professional baseball players have recently scored very high on the STEROID testing scale].

Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and especially Finland ranked consistently high in all areas. Another guess from me: these countries are generally homogeneous in nature and testing is more meaningful when comparing “apples to apples”. In America, with our very heterogeneous population, we are often comparing “apples to oranges” when it comes to meaningful testing.

I used to live in Turkey which has a relatively homogeneous population. The Turkish educational system is test driven (pros and cons to that) but the end data is significant because students are more or less on the same page -no pun intended – in everything they do.

The PISA results and TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study – next results are due out in December 2008) are important assessments in the emerging global village of the 21st century. Who is ahead? Who is behind and why?

They are worth looking at from time to time.