FOREWORD FFOREWORDOREWORD Compelling incentives for individuals, economies and societies to raise levels of education have been the driving force for governments to improve the quality of educational services. The prosperity of countries now derives to a large extent from their human capital and the opportunities available for their citizens to acquire knowledge and skills that will enable them to continue learning throughout their lives. All stakeholders - parents, students, those who teach and run education systems as well as the gen- eral public - need to be informed on how well their education systems prepare students to meet the challenges of the future. Many countries monitor student learning in order to provide answers to this question. Coupled with appropriate incentives, assessment and evaluation can motivate students to learn better, teachers to teach more effectively and schools to be more supportive and produc- tive environments. Comparative international analyses can extend and enrich the national picture by providing a larger context within which to interpret national results. They can provide countries with information to judge their areas of relative strength and weakness and to monitor progress. They can stimulate countries to raise aspirations. They can also provide evidence to direct national policy, for schools’ curriculum and instructional efforts and for students’ learning. In response to the need for cross-nationally comparable evidence on student performance, the OECD has launched the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA represents a new commitment by governments to monitor the outcomes of education systems in terms of student achievement on a regular basis and within an internationally accepted common framework. PISA aims to provide a new basis for policy dialogue and for collaboration in defining and operationalising edu- cational goals – in innovative ways that reflect judgements about the skills that are relevant to adult life. The first PISA assessment was conducted in 2000 and will now be followed-up with similar assess- ments every three years. A first report, Knowledge and Skills for Life, was published in 2001 and provided evidence on the performance in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy of students, schools and countries, as well as insights into the factors that influence the development of these skills at home and at school, and how these factors interact. The wide interest generated by PISA beyond the OECD membership has encouraged many non-OECD countries to join the effort. Brazil, Latvia, Liechtenstein and the Russian Federation implemented the first PISA assessment together with 28 OECD countries in 2000. Albania, Argentina, Bulgaria, Chile, Hong Kong-China, Indonesia, Israel, FYR Macedonia, Peru, Romania and Thailand followed in 2002 and further countries have signed up for future rounds. To respond to this increasing interest in PISA and international assessments more generally, OECD and UNESCO have joined forces with the aims to facilitate the participation of non-OECD countries in PISA and to analyse the resultant data. More broadly, the two organisations are collaborating, in supporting a shift in policy focus from educational inputs to learning outcomes, to assist countries in seeking to bring about improvements in schooling and better preparation for young people as they enter an adult life of rapid change and deepening global interdependence. © OECD/UNESCO-UIS 2003 3 FOREWORD This report, Literacy Skills for the World of Tomorrow - Further results from PISA 2000, which is the first result of this collaboration, presents the results in PISA for the eleven systems that tested in 2002. The report reveals considerable variation in levels of performance between students, schools and countries. It shows that the socio-economic backgrounds of students and schools exert an important influence on student performance, although this is much less marked in some countries than in others. More importantly, those countries – among them both OECD and non-OECD countries – which have been most successful in mitigating the effect of social disadvantage are among those with the highest levels of overall student performance. These countries demonstrate that it is possible to achieve high quality while reducing inequality. They define an important challenge for other countries by showing what it is possible to achieve. The report also suggests that schools can make an important difference although it will require further analysis to identify precisely how school resources, policies and prac- tices interact with home background to influence student performance. A series of more detailed thematic reports will be published in 2003 and 2004, including both OECD and non-OECD countries, in pursuit of a deeper understanding of how countries and schools can respond. In the meantime, the mere fact that high-quality learning outcomes are already a reality for the majority of students in some countries is, in itself, an encouraging result that suggests that the challenges ahead can be tackled successfully. PISA is a collaborative effort, bringing together scientific expertise from the participating countries, steered co-operatively by their governments on the basis of shared, policy-driven interests. A Board of Participating Countries took responsibility for the project at the policy level. Experts from these countries serve on working groups that are charged with linking the PISA policy objectives to the best available substantive and technical expertise in the field of international comparative assessment of educational outcomes. These expert groups ensure that the PISA assessment instruments are interna- tionally valid, that they take into account the cultural and curricular contexts of participating coun- tries, provide a realistic basis for measurement, and emphasise authenticity and educational validity. The frameworks and assessment instruments for PISA 2000 in themselves are the product of a multi- year development process. This report is the product of close co-operation between the countries participating in PISA, the experts and institutions working within the framework of the PISA Consortium, and the OECD and UNESCO. The report was prepared by the OECD Directorate for Education, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and the programme on Trade and Development of the Hamburg Institute of Interna- tional Economics (HWWA), under the direction of Andreas Schleicher (OECD) and Albert Motivans (UNESCO). Contributing authors are Hannah Cocks (OECD), Jeffery Hutcheson (Vanderbilt University), Katharina Michaelowa (HWWA), Kooghyang Ro (OECD), Thomas M. Smith (Vanderbilt University), Claudia Tamassia (OECD), Sophie Vayssettes (OECD) and Yanhong Zhang (UNESCO) with production assistance from Cassandra Davis (OECD) and Marie-Hélène Lussier (UNESCO). The data underlying the report were prepared by the PISA Consortium, under the direction of Raymond Adams and Christian Monseur at the Australian Council for Educational Research. The development of the report was steered by delegates from the participating non-OECD countries, including Nikoleta Mika and Perparim Shera (Albania); Lilia Toranzos (Argentina); Alexander Petkov 4 © OECD/UNESCO-UIS 2003 FOREWORD Lakiurski (Bulgaria); Leonor Cariola (Chile); Esther Sui Chu Ho (Hong Kong-China); Ramon Mohandas and Bahrul Hayat (Indonesia); Bracha Kramarski and Zemira Mevarech (Israel); Vladimir Mostrov (FYR Macedonia); José Rodríguez and Giuliana Espinosa (Peru); Adrian Stoica and Roxana Mihail (Romania); and, Sunee Klainin (Thailand). The report is published under the joint responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD and the Director-General of UNESCO. Barry McGaw Denise Lievesley Director for Education Director OECD UNESCO Institute for Statistics © OECD/UNESCO-UIS 2003 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS TTABLEABLE OOFF CCONTENTSONTENTS Foreword ................................................................................................................3 Chapter 1: Programme for International Student Assessment and non-OECD countries ... 11 An overview of PISA ............................................................................................ 12 Organisation of this report ..................................................................................... 15 What PISA measures ............................................................................................ 17 Reading literacy in PISA..................................................................................... 19 Mathematical literacy in PISA .............................................................................. 20 Scientifi c literacy in PISA.................................................................................... 21 How PISA assesses students and collects information ..................................................... 21 How PISA can inform policy................................................................................... 24 Social, economic and education contexts of the 14 non-OECD countries............................. 24 Characteristics of youth population........................................................................ 25 Educational participation and its returns ................................................................. 26 Capacities and efforts to invest in education ............................................................. 28 Summary ......................................................................................................