A brief summary of PISA

PISA is an international comparative survey of the educational school systems in different countries. The first cycle of PISA was carried out in 2000, initiated by OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). PISA measures 15-year-olds’ competencies in reading, mathematics and scientific literacy. In able to study the cumulative yield of education, the assessment takes place every three years and each time all the domains are included.

The Finnish students’ score best of all the participating countries on the science items in PISA 2006, but otherwise the Nordic countries do not perform particularly well. Only Sweden performs over the OECD average, but the difference is not statistically significant. Norwegian students have the lowest score among the Nordic countries, and only six OECD countries have a lower score than Norway. The average deviation from the average value (distribution) is similar to the OECD average, but after Iceland, it is the highest among the Nordic countries. The Norwegian results in science are definitely worrisome.

The Norwegian reading scores are in contradiction to earlier PISA surveys, lower than the OECD average, which itself has been lowered from 500 points in 2000. Otherwise, the Finnish students perform as usual almost best of everybody, only the Korean students perform better. Of other Nordic countries, the Swedish students perform significantly higher than the OECD average, Denmark is close to the average score, and Iceland has the same result as Norway. We also notice that the distribution of results is relatively large in our country, considerably larger than in the other Nordic countries.

We also establish the fact that Norwegian 15-year-olds’ reading comprehension is below the OECD average, and significantly worse than in both 2000 and 2003. Students from Norway and Iceland perform lowest of the Nordic countries, but that the variance in Norway is above the average and highest of all the Nordic countries.

What about mathematics? Again, Finland outperforms all the Nordic countries. The students from Iceland, Denmark and Sweden performed higher then the OECD average, but only the Swedish students score significantly better. The Norwegian results appear disappointing, since the Norwegian students score significantly lower than the OECD average for the first time in PISA. When looking at the variation, it is also highest among the Nordic countries and at the same level as the OECD average when it comes to mathematics.

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