Presentation for Teachers

1. Program for International Student Assessment
   (PISA) 2009

1. Coming to our School!

 

1. What is PISA?

1. PISA is the acronym for the "Program for International Student Assessment".

 

1. Who administers PISA?

1. The OECD is an intergovernmental organization of 30 member countries whose goal to is promote democracy and the economy.

    

   The National Center for Education Statistics is an agency within the Dept. of Education and is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education.

    

   Responding to member countries’ demands for regular and reliable data on the knowledge and skills of their students and the performance of their education systems, the OECD began work on PISA in the mid-1990s. PISA was officially launched in 1997, with the first survey taking place in 2000, the second in 2003 and the third in 2006.  PISA 2009 will be the fourth round of PISA.  

 

1.  

   PISA measures things differently than other assessments.  It emphasizes the application of knowledge by presenting students with tasks that involve interpretation of real-world material as much as possible. These tasks reflect the underlying assumption of PISA: as 15-year-olds begin to make the transition to adult life, they need to know how to apply their knowledge and skills to different situations they will encounter in their lives.

    

   PISA complements the picture of U.S. student performance gained from other national and international assessments such as NAEP.

    

 

1. Test items are reviewed by international test experts and by participating countries and are carefully checked for cultural bias. Only those questions that are unanimously approved are used in PISA. Further, before the real test there is a trial run field test in all participating countries. If any test questions prove to have been too easy or too hard in certain countries, they are dropped from the real test in all countries.

    

   PISA has strict protocols in place to ensure that country school samples are representative and properly selected.  

 

1. A variety of education organizations have endorsed PISA 2009.  

 

1. Our school is one of a small number selected to participate from around the country.  This means that our school represents many other  US schools like us.  

    

   PISA is an age-based assessment rather grade-based.  Up to 42 students will be selected randomly from a list of all 15-year-old students in the school.  

 

1. PISA assesses reading, mathematics and science every 3 years, with a different subject as the focus in each round.  In 2009, reading is the main subject being assessed.  

    

   PISA items are different in terms of the content, but the item format is traditional with a mix of multiple choice and short answer questions. The material is organized around texts and sometimes include pictures, graphs or tables setting out real-life situations.

    

 

1. Students do not need to prepare in any way for the assessment.  They simply need to attend the session and do their best.   They may even find the items fun and interesting.  

    

    

 

1. The assessment is scheduled to take place in the fall of 2009 – away from the spring testing  -- and will take about 2 ½ hours.  

    

   Students receive $20 for participating and they also are awarded 2 ½ hours of volunteer service.  

 

1. Like selected schools, only a small number of students are selected within a school.  

    

   Each student represent hundreds of student across the United States and their participation directly contributes to the results of PISA.  

   PISA results are used both nationally and internationally to inform policy about education and our school systems.  

    

   If a student does not attend the assessment, they cannot be replaced.  

    

    

 

1. I ask that you help me to encourage students to attend the PISA assessment and represent our school and the US.  

 

 

File Type	application/vnd.ms-powerpoint
File Title	PISA 2009
Author	David Kastberg
Last Modified By	#Administrator
File Modified	2010-09-13
File Created	2008-08-01