Should the PISA findings be trusted?

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a major international study of the reading, mathematics and science skills of 15-year-olds across the world. The results are closely watched by journalists, educationalists and policymakers across the globe. Yet there have been recent criticisms of the methodology used by PISA, and debate about whether the results can really be trusted. With the latest PISA results released on December 3rd 2019, this public lecture taking place the evening before will discuss some of these criticisms of PISA in detail. This will include key aspects, such as how the PISA sample is selected and whether it is a truly representative reflection of 15-year-olds’ achievement, as well as unusual aspects of the PISA test design.