PISA 2006: Mathematical Literacy - How ready are our 15-year-olds for tomorrow's world?

An overview of PISA

What is PISA?

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international standardised study that assesses and compares how well countries are preparing their 15-year-old¹ students to meet real-life opportunities and challenges.

What does PISA assess?

PISA assesses three key areas of knowledge and skills − reading literacy, mathematical literacy and scientific literacy − and has a focus on one of these literacy areas each time PISA is administered. The focus of PISA 2006 is science. The term ‘literacy’ is used to emphasise that the assessment is not restricted to assessing how well students have mastered the content of a specific school curriculum. Instead, PISA focuses on assessing students’ ability to apply their knowledge and skills, and their ability to make decisions in real-life situations. PISA defines this approach as assessing “[t]he knowledge, skills, competencies and other attributes embodied in individuals that are relevant to personal, social and economic well-being” (OECD 2006, p. 11).

What additional information is gathered?

Background information is also gained in each PISA cycle from questionnaires completed by students and school principals. In addition, in PISA 2006 parents completed a questionnaire. These questionnaires allow for the relationship between contextual information and achievement to be examined.

How often is PISA administered?

PISA is administered every three years, beginning in 2000. Reading was the main focus in the first cycle. In 2003 the focus was mathematical literacy, and in 2009 it will be reading literacy again. Rotating the major focus for each administration of PISA provides in-depth and detailed information on the subject of major focus along with an ongoing source of achievement data on the two minor subjects.

Who participates in PISA?

Around 400,000 15-year-old students from 57² countries, including the 30 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries, participated in PISA 2006. In New Zealand 4,824 students from 170 schools took part. Students and schools were randomly selected. A two-tiered stratified sampling method was used to ensure the sample was representative. Students were sampled from schools of different sizes and decile groupings, and from urban and rural schools. As a result, every 15-year-old had roughly the same chance of selection.

Why participate in PISA?

PISA assesses students who have completed around 10 years of compulsory schooling, which means the PISA results are an important source of information in New Zealand. PISA measures progress towards the Government’s goals of:

• building an education system that equips New Zealanders with 21st century skills, and
• reducing systemic underachievement in education.
  

PISA not only allows measurement of New Zealand’s progress on these goals over time, but also allows measurement of New Zealand’s performance relative to other countries in equipping students with skills and reducing disparities in achievement. The PISA data provide evidence to inform policy and practice in literacy, numeracy and curriculum development.

Who organises PISA?

PISA is an initiative of the OECD and a collaborative effort of the participating countries. A consortium is responsible for developing and overseeing PISA 2006 at the international level. This consortium is led by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), and consists of the Netherlands National Institute for Educational Measurement (Citogroup), Westat (USA), the Educational Testing Service (ETS, USA), and the Japanese National Institute for Educational Policy Research (NIER, Japan). In New Zealand, the Comparative Education Research Unit within the Ministry of Education’s Research Division is responsible for PISA.

How did countries ensure the PISA data were of high quality?

A number of quality assurance procedures were put in place, both nationally and internationally, to ensure the data were of as high a quality as possible. These included: rigorous training of staff; high-quality documentation; monitoring of sampling procedures; quality checks and monitoring at a number of stages, including during administration of the tests; multiple coding and data entry procedures; and data cleaning and checking procedures. Further details of international procedures can be found in the PISA 2006 technical report (OECD, in press), or in the technical notes (OECD, n.d.).

Footnotes

1. Students are aged between 15 years 3 months and 16 years 2 months. As most students are aged 15, they are referred to as 15-year-olds for brevity.
   
2. The countries participating in PISA 2006 are listed in Appendix 1.