PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment)
This is the home page for PISA. See below for information about the PISA study or follow one of the links to view information about individual PISA cycles.
| The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international study that assesses how well 15-year-old students are prepared to meet the challenges of today's society. PISA assesses three key areas of knowledge and skills: reading literacy, mathematical literacy and scientific literacy.
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PISA has a focus on whether young adults have the ability to use their knowledge and skills to meet real life challenges, rather than whether they have mastered a specific school curriculum. This vision ties in with the goals and objectives of the New Zealand school curriculum, which is concerned with the development of skills and what students can do with what they learn rather than just content knowledge.
PISA is commissioned by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The PISA assessments are administered every three years, starting from 2000. Although each area of knowledge and skills is assessed, there is a focus on one of these areas each cycle: reading literacy in 2000, mathematical literacy in 2003, scientific literacy in 2006 and back to reading literacy again in 2009.
In each cycle information is also collected from students and school principals. These data provide information regarding student attitudes, beliefs and learning strategies, as well as the home and school contexts within which students learn.
The Ministry of Education's Comparative Education Research Unit is New Zealand's National Study Centre for PISA.
Some FAQs about PISA are available.
Sample PISA questions from the OECD
The following material has been copied from the OECD web pages PISA 2003 sample questions. Download samples of questions posed to students in the PISA 2003 assessment for the domains of:
(Due to the size of this file, it may take some time to download.)
An interactive version of a selection of publicly released PISA sample questions for Mathematics, Reading and Science, along with marking guides for these questions is available from this Australian Council for Educational Research site.
International Data from the OECD
The following links lead you through to the international data sets for PISA 2006, 2003, and 2000 on the OECD website.
PISA 2006 International Data Set
Publications
The Ministry of Education has published a number of research reports based on the 2000, 2003 and 2006 PISA assessments, which are available from the PISA publication home pages.
Contact Us
 Maree Telford | If you have any questions about PISA, please contact Maree Telford at:
: Maree.Telford@minedu.govt.nz [no spam] | : +64 4-463 8831 | :+64 4-463 8312 |
International Sites of Interest
 | The international PISA site hosted by the OECD: http://www.pisa.oecd.org |
 | The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) web pages relating to PISA: http://www.acer.edu.au/ozpisa/ |