The PISA 2000 Survey of Students' Reading, Mathematical and Scientific Literacy Skills a + b + c >> Jan Lokan Lisa Greenwood John Cresswell Programme for International Student Assessment The PISA 2000 Survey of Students' Reading, Mathematical and Scientific Literacy Skills >> Jan Lokan Lisa Greenwood John Cresswell Programme for International Student Assessment First published 2001 by Australian Council for Educational Research Ltd 19 Prospect Hill Road, Camberwell, Melbourne, Victoria, 3124 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Copyright © 2001 Australian Council for Educational Research All rights reserved. Except under the conditions described in the Copyright Act 1968 of Australia and subsequent amendments, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publishers. Edited by Kay Waters Text and cover design by Anita Adams Printed by The Craftsman Press National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data: Lokan, Jan. 15-up and counting, reading, writing, reasoning: how literate are Australian students?: the PISA 2000 survey of students’ reading, mathematical and scientific literacy skills. Bibliography. Includes index. ISBN 0 86431 456 6 1. Programme for International Student Assessment. 2. Educational tests and measurements – Australia. 3. Competency based education – Australia. 4. Educational evaluation – Australia. I. Cresswell, John. II. Greenwood, Lisa. III. Title: Fifteen-up and counting, reading, writing, reasoning. 373.12620994 Visit our website: www.acer.edu.au CONTENTS Executive summary . .vi List of Tables . xvi List of Figures . xx Acknowledgements . xxiii Membership of Advisory Committee . xxiv CHAPTER 1 Introduction . .1 How PISA came about . .1 PISA’s main goals . .2 What skills does PISA assess? . .3 Who participates in PISA? . .4 What did PISA 2000 participants need to do? . .6 The core assessment domains . .7 Skills for life? . .10 Development of the PISA assessment tasks . .11 How results are reported . .11 PISA and TIMSS . .12 How PISA can inform policy in Australia . .12 Organisation of the report . .13 CHAPTER 2 Australia’s results in international perspective . .15 Achieved samples . .16 International achievement charts . .18 Results . .20 Results by gender . .33 Australia’s relative standing in cross-curricular areas . .38 Summary . .42 CHAPTER 3 Adding meaning to PISA results: profiles of students’ skills in reading . .45 PISA’s coverage of reading literacy . .45 PISA’s ‘described proficiency scales’ for reading literacy . .47 Sample items . .49 Distributions according to reading proficiency level . .65 Further consideration of results on reading literacy items . .72 Summary . .77 [iii} CHAPTER 4 Adding meaning to PISA results: students’ skills in mathematics and science . .79 PISA’s coverage of mathematical literacy . .79 Students’ proficiency in mathematical literacy . .82 Sample mathematics items . .84 PISA’s coverage of scientific literacy . .95 Students’ proficiency in scientific literacy . .98 Sample science items . .100 Further consideration of results on mathematical literacy items . .109 Further consideration of results on scientific literacy items . .112 Summary . .115 CHAPTER 5 Results within Australia . .117 Comparing the Australian states and territories . .117 Distributions of proficiency levels . .123 Gender differences by state . .125 Results for Indigenous students . .126 Results for students from a language background other than English . .127 Results based on location of school . .128 Results by state on other variables . .130 Summary . .130 CHAPTER 6 The contexts of PISA in Australia: priorities, schools and students . .133 International and national priorities for PISA 2000 . .133 Questionnaire response rates . .134 Australian school and student participants . .135 Instructional practices and school climate factors . .144 Other school factors . .148 Students’ patterns of participation and program orientation . .149 Students’ reading habits and attitudes towards reading . .150 Students’ use of and attitudes towards technology . .154 Students’ learning preferences and behaviours . .155 Summary . .160 CHAPTER 7 Socioeconomic factors in the education of Australian students . .161 Socioeconomic gradients . .161 A comparison of the three reading sub-scales . .165 Mathematical literacy . .166 Scientific literacy . .168 A comparison of reading, mathematical and scientific literacy . .169 A comparison of the social gradients for the Australian states . .172 [ iv} How Literate are Australia’s Students? Contents The probability of achieving a low reading score . .173 Summary . .176 CHAPTER 8 Multilevel analysis of Australia’s Results . .177 Multilevel analysis . .177 Multilevel analysis for reading literacy . .178 Multilevel analysis for mathematical literacy . .187 Multilevel analysis for scientific literacy . .188 A comparison of some Australian schools . .191 Summary . .194 CHAPTER 9 Who are the high and low achievers? . .195 Summary . .198 CHAPTER 10 Summary and policy issues . .201 PISA in Australia . .202 Australia’s achievement results from international and national perspectives . .203 Commentary on variables related to achievement . .207 Policy issues . .208 References . 212 Appendix 1:.