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Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)

PISA is the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment. PISA measures 15-year-olds’ ability to use their reading, mathematics and science knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges.

Directorate for Education and Skills

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About PISA

PISA is the world’s largest international comparative survey of 15-year-old students, assessing the extent to which they have acquired key knowledge and skills essential for full participation in social and economic life. The survey’s core domains are mathematics, reading and science, and the focal core domain rotates with each PISA cycle. Additionally, each cycle includes an innovative domain.

PISA 2025 results will be released in 2026. Please find more information below.

PISA 2029 will soon be initiated. It will focus on reading, with science and mathematics as minor domains, and Media and AI Literacy (MAIL) as the innovative domain.

PISA 2025

 

More than 90 countries and economies are participating in PISA 2025. The focal domain is science, with mathematics and reading as minor domains. It also includes, for the first time, a Foreign Language Assessment (FLA) and the innovative domain is Learning in the Digital World (LDW), which measures students’ capacity to engage in an iterative process of knowledge building and problem solving using computational tools.

The initial results will be released on 8 September 2026.

Publications

Reports, Working papers, policy briefs and PISA in Focus.

  • Teacher support for student learning
    54 Pages
    This policy paper examines teacher support for students in mathematics lessons, drawing on data from PISA 2022 and previous cycles. It highlights key trends and explores how school contexts, teacher practices, and student characteristics influence the level of support students receive. Over the past decade (2012–2022), teacher support has declined in most participating education systems. This paper addresses the critical question of how education systems can reverse this trend and strengthen teacher support. Understanding the conditions and practices that enable teachers to effectively meet students’ diverse learning needs is essential. Through this analysis, the paper provides insights and policy recommendations to help foster supportive learning environments, guide education reform, and mitigate the decline in teacher support observed since 2012.
    Learn more
  • Mindsets, attitudes and learning
    57 Pages
    This policy paper examines the distribution and relevance of students’ growth mindset beliefs, drawing on data from the 2022 cycle of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). It highlights a drop in the prevalence of a growth mindset —the belief that intelligence can develop through feedback, effort and effective strategies—between 2018 and 2022. Nevertheless, it shows that students with a growth mindset generally achieve higher scores in mathematics, reading and science, than their peers with a fixed mindset. This paper shows that a growth mindset is most common among high performers, yet the strongest performance differences linked with it appear among mid-performing students. Among low performers, the associations with achievement are weaker or inconsistent. A growth mindset also aligns positively with self-efficacy, curiosity, persistence and lower mathematics anxiety, though these associations vary by performance level. Moreover, at the classroom level, when teachers support students and cognitively challenging instruction is prevalent, the performance gap between growth- and fixed-mindset students is wider. But this pattern is not observed among struggling learners. At the school level, growth mindset clusters mirroring socio-economic disparities. These analyses highlight the importance of policies that pair mindset-supportive practices with equitable access to quality teaching and learning environments.
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  • Education policy outlook in Korea
    50 Pages
    This country policy profile on education in Korea is part of the Education Policy Outlook series. Building on the first policy profile for Korea (2016), it offers a concise analysis of where the education system stands today and how this compares to other OECD systems. The profile analyses the evolution of ongoing and emerging related policy efforts in Korea. It also offers relevant international policy examples that may serve as possible inspiration as policy makers work to address Korea’s key challenges and priorities, particularly in the context of digitalisation, demographic change and the green transition. The report brings together over a decade's worth of policy analysis by the Education Policy Outlook, as well as recent OECD data, relevant thematic and country-specific work, and other international and national evidence. It also benefits from the Education Policy Outlook's ongoing comparative analysis of resilience and responsiveness in education policy.
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  • Finite time to learn and play
    54 Pages
    This policy paper examines how much time 15-year-old students dedicate to digital leisure outside of school and explores the relationship between digital leisure and students’ learning outcomes and well-being at school. The paper finds that when digital leisure takes place outside school hours, it is only after 4 hours a day that the relationships between time spent on digital leisure and students’ mathematics scores and sense of belonging at school are negative. Students who balance a moderate use of digital devices for leisure with a moderate time spent on learning outside of school have both higher academic and well-being outcomes than their peers.
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  • Tailored Work Experience in Wales
    67 Pages
    This paper examines the Tailored Work Experience (TWE) programme in Wales, an initiative launched in 2022 to re-engage students aged 14–16 at risk of becoming Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET). Drawing on international research, stakeholder perspectives, and new analysis of data from the 2022 OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the paper explores how extended work experience placements can influence student engagement, academic outcomes, and future aspirations. The analysis situates the TWE within broader theories of human, social and cultural capital, and compares it to similar programmes in OECD countries. It finds that while work experience can contribute positively to student motivation and long-term employment prospects, its effectiveness depends heavily on quality, student preparation, and integration with wider career development activities. The paper offers five key considerations for enhancing the TWE programme and highlights the importance of thoughtful design in maximising benefits for socially disadvantaged and low-performing students.
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  • Accommodating students with special education needs in PISA
    32 Pages
    This paper presents findings from a pilot study conducted in seven countries to assess the feasibility and perceived effectiveness of an accessible PISA form for students with moderate difficulties seeing, specific difficulties reading, and difficulties focusing and controlling behaviour. The pilot involved administering a one-hour test form that included adapted PISA Science items, accessibility tools, and flexible test scheduling with breaks. Data from log files, questionnaires, and focus groups were collected to examine student engagement, use and perception of the accommodations, and their perceived impact on performance. Results show that students were engaged and found the tools helpful — particularly the read-aloud and contrast features — with differences in tool use and perceived usefulness across needs. The study offers promising evidence that students with special education needs can meaningfully participate in PISA when appropriate accommodations are provided. The paper concludes with recommendations for their future implementation in PISA.
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Publications by cycle

The series of reports available on each cycle of PISA's periodic testing program on student performance.

Read our publications
PISA publications by cycle

Take a PISA test

Think you are smarter than a 15-year-old? Take our test and find out why reading, science and mathematics matters!

Discover PISA tests
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Education GPS

Check out our key findings and policy recommendations

Discover

Education GPS

Create customised data profiles and compare countries

Discover
  • Dataset
    PISA 2022 Database
    Download the PISA 2022 dataset with the full set of responses from individual students, school principals, teachers and parents.
  • Dataset
    PISA 2018 Database
    Download the PISA 2018 dataset with the full set of responses from individual students, school principals, teachers and parents.
  • Dataset
    PISA 2015 Database
    Download the PISA 2015 dataset with the full set of responses from individual students, school principals, teachers and parents.
  • Dataset
    PISA 2012 Database
    Download the PISA 2012 dataset with the full set of responses from individual students, school principals and parents.
  • Dataset
    PISA 2009 Database
    Download the PISA 2009 dataset with the full set of responses from individual students, school principals and parents.
  • Dataset
    PISA 2006 Database
    Download the PISA 2006 dataset with the full set of responses from individual students, school principals and parents.
  • Dataset
    PISA 2003 Database
    Download the PISA 2003 dataset with the full set of responses from individual students, school principals and parents.
  • Dataset
    PISA 2000 Database
    Download the PISA 2000 dataset with the full set of responses from individual students, school principals and parents.
  • Dataset
    PISA-D: PISA for Development
    From this page you can download the PISA-D (PISA for Development) dataset with the full set of responses from individual students, out-of-school youth, school principals, teachers and parents. These files will be of use to statisticians and professional researchers who would like to undertake their own analysis of the PISA for Development data. The files available on this page include questionnaires, codebooks, data files in SAS™ and SPSS™ formats, and compendia.

Research and Innovation

The Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) programme established by the PISA Governing Board in 2018 explores how different areas of the assessment programme including test design and scoring methodologies can be improved.

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PISA initiatives

  • International Vocational Education and Training Assessment (PISA-VET)
    Inspired by PISA, the OECD is developing a new international assessment to measure the skills of learners completing initial vocational education and training (VET) programmes in selected occupations. PISA-VET will measure the learners’ ability to use their professional knowledge and skills to meet real challenges faced in the workplace.
    Learn more
  • PISA for Schools
    The PISA-based Test for Schools provides school-level estimates of performance and information about the learning environment and students’ attitudes gathered from student questionnaires. Find out more and how schools and their networks can take part.
    Learn more
  • PISA High Performing Systems for Tomorrow (HPST)
    The OECD’s PISA High Performing Systems for Tomorrow (HPST) project aims to establish a comprehensive international framework for the future development of education systems, enabling countries to reorient their education systems toward new purposes, policies and practices, while considering the implications of artificial intelligence for the purposes of education.
    Learn more

Since 2000, PISA has involved more than

100

countries and economies

and around

3 700 000

students worldwide

Next steps

OECD member countries and PGB associate members decided to postpone two PISA cycles to reflect the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The PISA 2021 assessment was postponed to 2022, and PISA 2024 to 2025.

PISA 2025

PISA 2025 will focus on science and include a new assessment of foreign languages. It will also include the innovative domain of Learning in the Digital World which aims to measure students’ ability to engage in self-regulated learning while using digital tools.

PISA 2029

PISA 2029 will be the 10th edition of PISA. It will focus on reading, with an innovative domain of Media and Artificial Intelligence Literacy.  Click here for more information about PISA 2029.

Want to join PISA?

Countries and economies applying now will be eligible for participation in the data collection in 2025 (PISA 2025).

How to join PISA
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FAQ

If you haven't found the information you're looking for, review our frequently asked questions.

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Contacts

Four groups are involved in the day-to-day running of PISA:

  • OECD Secretariat: responsible for the day-to-day management of PISA.
  • PISA Governing Board: determines the policy priorities and makes sure they are respected during the implementation of each PISA survey; you can also read a statement on the development, implementation and reporting of PISA.
  • National Project Managers (NPMs): oversee the implementation of PISA in each participating country/economy.
        2025    2022    2018    2015    2012    2009    2006    2003    2000
  • International contractors: design and implement the surveys. Questions should be directed to the OECD Secretariat.