School Board News

Findings from the 2009 PISA Reading, Science, and Mathematics Literacy assessments of 15 year-olds from 60 nations were released on Dec. 7. Of the 60 participating nations, 34 are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which is an intergovernmental organization of nations that share a belief in market democracies. The results summarized below compare the U.S. performance to these 34 OECD countries because their education systems and economies are more closely aligned to the United States and hence provide a closer apples-to-apples comparison.

This year’s PISA results focused on reading literacy, although results were also provided for science and mathematics literacy. Across each of the subjects, the results were quite positive. In reading, the U.S. outperformed the majority of OECD countries. In math and science, the U.S. made significant improvements. However, the U.S. needs to maintain or accelerate these gains to catch up the highest performing countries, like Korea, Finland, and Canada.

Reading Literacy

• U.S. 15-year olds compare favorably to their international peers in reading literacy.
  • The U.S. outperformed or performed as well as all but six OECD countries in reading literacy. These countries included Korea, Finland and Canada.
  • The U.S. outperformed 13 OECD countries and performed similarly to 14 other OECD countries.
• The U.S. scored no different in its overall reading literacy score from the average of the 34 OECD participating countries.
  • The U.S. did score above the OECD average in the Reflect and Evaluate subscale.
  • The U.S. scored no different than the OECD average on the other two reading literacy subscales—Access and Retrieve, and Integrate and Interpret.
• Although the U.S. compares favorably to its peers, there has been basically no improvement over the past decade.
  • There were no significant differences in reading literacy scores between 2000 and 2009 or between 2003 and 2009.
  • However, more than half the OECD countries that participated in PISA in both 2000 and 2009 saw their scores decline over this time period, including high performing countries like Canada (-10), Finland (-10), and Japan (-2).
• The U.S. has a similar percentage of high-performing readers.
  • 30 percent of U.S. 15-year olds scored at PISA’s level 4 or above, which is similar to the OECD average.
    • PISA states that level 4 is the level at which students are “capable of difficult reading tasks, such as locating embedded information, construing meaning from nuances of language and critically evaluating a text.”
  • Only seven countries had a higher percentage of high performers.
  • Fourteen countries had a lower percentage and 12 had a similar percentage.
• No other country has a significantly smaller female-male reading literacy gap.
  • In the U.S., females outscore their male counterparts by 25 points, while in Canada the gap is 34 points; in Japan it is 39 points; in Korea it is 35 points, and Finland had the largest gap at 55 points.
• Results show large disparity among different student groups in the U.S.
  • White students’ average score was 525, which is similar to the average score in Canada.
  • Black students scored just 441, which is similar to the average score in Chile.
  • Hispanic students scored just 466, which is similar to the average score in Turkey.

Mathematics Literacy

• The U.S. has improved its performance significantly.
  • From 2006 to 2009, the U.S. improved its performance by 13 points.
    • Improvement was made by students across all achievement levels, both high, low, and average achieving students.
  • Only four countries made greater gains during this time period (Italy, Portugal, Turkey, and Czech Republic).
  • Nearly half of all OECD countries scored lower in 2009 than in 2006.
  • Top-performing Japan, Korea, and Canada didn’t have any significant changes in their scores.
• However, U.S. students do not compare favorably to their international peers on their overall mathematics literacy.
  • The U.S. overall mathematics score was below the OECD average.
  • U.S. 15-year olds were outperformed by 17 of the 33 other OECD countries, including Korea, Finland, Japan, Canada, Germany, and France.
    • The U.S did outperform five OECD countries.
    • Eleven OECD countries performed similarly to the U.S.
• The U.S. has a lower percentage of high performing students than the average OECD country.
  • In the U.S., 27 percent of students scored at or above PISA’s level 4, compared to the OECD average of 32 percent.
    • PISA defines level 4 as the level at which students can complete higher order tasks such as “solving problems that involve visual and spatial reasoning…in unfamiliar contexts” and “carrying out sequential processes.”
  • Sixteen OECD countries had a higher percentage of students scoring at level 4 or above.
    • Korea had the highest percentage at 52 percent, while Canada had 43 percent, and Japan had 49 percent.
  • Five OECD countries had a lower percentage and 12 OECD countries had a similar percentage.

Science Literacy

• The U.S. has improved its performance significantly.
  • From 2006 to 2009, the U.S. improved its performance by 13 points.
    • Improvement was made by average and below average performing students, while higher performing students’ scores remained steady.
  • Only four countries made greater gains during this time period (Italy, Korea, Portugal, and Turkey).
  • Nearly half of all OECD countries scored lower in 2009 than in 2006, including Canada (-5), Finland (-9), and the United Kingdom (-1).
• The U.S. performance improved from below the OECD average in 2006 to similar to the OECD average in 2009.
  • U.S. 15-year olds were outperformed by 12 of the 33 other OECD countries, including Korea, Finland, Japan, Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
    • The U.S did outperform 9 OECD countries
    • 12 OECD countries performed similarly to the U.S.
• The U.S. percentage of high performing students is similar to the average OECD country.
  • In the U.S., 29 percent of students scored at or above PISA’s level 4, compared to the OECD average of 32 percent.
    • PISA defines level 4 as the level at which students can complete higher order tasks such as “selecting and integrating explanations from different disciplines of science or technology and linking those explanations directly to…life situations.”
  • 13 OECD countries had a higher percentage of students scoring at level 4 or above.
    • Finland had the highest percentage at 50 percent, while Canada had 38 percent and Korea had 42 percent.
  • 11 OECD countries had a lower percentage and 9 OECD countries had a similar percentage.

When evaluating PISA’s results, keep in mind PISA is not designed to evaluate the content students are expected to learn in school, like NAEP, TIMSS, and state assessments. PISA is designed to evaluate how students are able to apply their knowledge in each of the subject areas to real world problems.

For more information about PISA and other international assessments of student achievement check out the Center’s publication, “More than a horse race: A guide to international tests of student achievement.”

The full report is available at: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011004.pdf

-Jim Hull, Senior analyst, Center for Public Education