Directorate for Education
Back to

Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)
About Statistics Publications & Documents Information by Country

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA ) is an internationally standardised assessment that was jointly developed by participating countries and administered to 15-year-olds in schools. PISA assesses how far students near the end of compulsory education have acquired some of the knowledge and skills that are essential for full participation in society. In all cycles, the domains of reading, mathematical and scientific literacy are covered not merely in terms of mastery of the school curriculum, but in terms of important knowledge and skills needed in adult life.

What's new

Equally prepared for life? How 15-year-old boys and girls perform in school

26-May-2009

School students are still being held back by gender perceptions. In most countries, girls and boys now show similar results in PISA, but systematic assessment of gender differences shows that students are still being held back by their own gender-related perceptions.

Top of the Class - High Performers in Science in PISA 2006

28-Apr-2009

Which factors contribute to the successful performance of students in science?  "Top of the Class" provides some answers by exploring how the academic achievement of students relates to the characteristics of individual students, schools and education systems.

Many teenagers in OECD countries lack environmental science grounding, study shows

31-Mar-2009

Teenagers in OECD countries are mostly well aware of environmental issues but often know little about their causes, raising questions about how well societies will be equipped to tackle such challenges in the future, according to a new OECD publication.

PISA Take the Test: Sample Questions from the OECD's PISA Assessments

07-Jan-2009

Try out the tests that the students who participated in PISA have taken. "PISA Take the Test" presents all the publicly available questions from the PISA surveys. Some of these questions were used in the PISA 2000, 2003 and 2006 surveys and others were used in developing and trying out the assessment.

PISA 2006 Technical Report

22-Jan-2009

Learn about the methodology underlying the PISA 2006 survey. The "PISA 2006 Technical report" provides  a level of detail that allows researchers to understand and replicate its analyses.

OECD’s PISA survey shows some countries making significant gains in learning outcomes

04-Dec-2007

OECD’s latest PISA survey of the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds shows that some countries have seen significant improvements in student performance since 2000.

PISA brochure

23-Feb-2007

This brochure on the OECD's Programme for International Students Assessment describes what the programme has achieved so far and sets out plans for the project up until 2015.

PISA 2003 country profiles

21-Dec-2006

The PISA 2003 country profiles tool allows the user to obtain information for a country or set of countries on the performance of 15-year-olds (in mathematics, science, reading and problem solving), their family background and approaches to learning, as well as the way their schools are managed.
See more news and events… Top of page
Don't miss

OECD Education Lighthouse

Register to join this collaborative space and help chart the way for the education sector to navigate through the current crisis and shape the post-crisis economy and society.

OECD Education Lighthouse

How are students faring in science today?

Volume 1 - Analysis: Gives the most comprehensive international picture of science learning today. Volume 2 - Data: Presents the PISA 2006 full data set underlying Volume 1.

PISA 2006 results - Analysis and Data

This publication presents the conceptual framework underlying the PISA 2006 survey.

It includes a re-developed and expanded framework for scientific literacy, an innovative component on the assessment of students' attitudes to science and the frameworks for the assessment of reading and mathematics.

Assessing Scientific, Reading and Mathematical Literacy: A Framework for PISA 2006

Did you know that immigrant students are highly motivated to learn despite the greater obstacles they face at school?

Drawing on data from the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), this report examines the performance of students with immigrant backgrounds and compares it to that of their native counterparts.

Where Immigrant Students Succeed - A Comparative Review of Performance and Engagement in PISA 2003