Here’s an open letter written by academics and school activists from around the world to Andreas Schleicher, director of the Program of International Student Assessment, known as PISA, which tests 15-year-olds in dozens of countries and individual education systems in math, reading and science every three years. The letter expresses concerns about the impact PISA is having on education systems around the world and asks him “to consider skipping” the next exams and come up with an improved assessment.
[For more about PISA, learn about a 2013 report that delves into how class and curriculums affect scores.]
U.S. students historically score at best average on international exams, including PISA. Every time new results are released, we hear cries that this is proof of the decline of American public education — even though, as already noted but is worth repeating — Americans have never been at the top of international exams, even when public education wasn’t being questioned. Shanghai came out with the No. 1 international ranking in the 2012 PISA administration, though questions emerged about whether Shanghai deserved that ranking.
Here’s the letter, which was first published by The Guardian:
Dear Dr. Schleicher,
We write to you in your capacity as OECD’s (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) director of the Programme of International Student Assessment (Pisa). Now in its 13th year, Pisa is known around the world as an instrument to rank OECD and non-OECD countries (60-plus at last count) according to a measure of academic achievement of 15-year-old students in mathematics, science, and reading. Administered every three years, Pisa results are anxiously awaited by governments, education ministers, and the editorial boards of newspapers, and are cited authoritatively in countless policy reports. They have begun to deeply influence educational practices in many countries. As a result of Pisa, countries are overhauling their education systems in the hopes of improving their rankings. Lack of progress on Pisa has led to declarations of crisis and “Pisa shock” in many countries, followed by calls for resignations, and far-reaching reforms according to Pisa precepts.
Read the full story in the Washington Post.
David Labaree is a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and was recently quoted in an article about Seattle teachers boycotting tests in Yes Magazine.
The Los Angeles Times also weighed in on this issue in an editorial in December 2013.
© Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305.
