More Resources Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) Audio Clips

America's 15-year-olds performed below the international average in mathematics literacy and problem-solving, according to the latest results from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). The test, given in the spring of 2003, assesses the abilities of 15-year-old students from 41 countries (including 30 of the most developed) to apply learning to problems with a real-world context.

U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige said the results point to the need for reform of the nation's high schools. "The PISA results are a blinking warning light," he said. "It's more evidence that high standards and accountability for results are a good idea for all schools at all grade levels."

President Bush has called for annual learning assessments for all students in grades 9-11. Under the No Child Left Behind Act such assessments, developed and driven by the 50 states, currently apply to students in grades 3-8. The president has also called for high schools to offer more challenging coursework, and for more students to elect to take it. As part of that effort, the Department has funded the Advanced Placement Program, which helps students, particularly low-income students, to participate and succeed in Advanced Placement courses and exams. In addition, he has proposed the Striving Readers program that will allow schools to develop specific intervention programs so that struggling students get the help they need before they reach high school.

Last year the Department of Education launched the Preparing America's Future High School Initiative to help states develop and share ideas leading to world-class schools that challenge and engage their students.

"Many of our high schools are already world-class," Paige said. "However, too many graduate students are ill-prepared to succeed in higher education or the workforce. These students are being robbed of their life's potential. A high school diploma should be meaningful—a roadmap to a fulfilling future."

The report on U.S. PISA results, International Outcomes of Learning in Mathematics and Science Literacy: PISA 2003 Results From the U.S. Perspective, was released today by the Education Department's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in the Institute of Education Sciences. The international results on PISA were released today by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

PISA is organized under the auspices of the OECD and is directed in the United States by NCES. The OECD is an intergovernmental organization of industrialized countries for cooperation in research and policy development on social and economic topics. PISA assesses students every three years to provide participating nations with regular information on learning outcomes for reading literacy, mathematics literacy and science literacy and cross-curricular skills, like problem-solving. Problem-solving questions involved students using reasoning skills to make decisions, troubleshoot systems, and analyze and design systems based on given criteria. PISA 2003 focused on mathematics literacy and problem-solving.

Some key findings from PISA 2003:

• Of the other 38 comparison countries, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong-China, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macao-China, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the Slovak Republic, Sweden, and Switzerland outperformed the United States in mathematics literacy in 2003. These same 23 countries, plus Hungary and Poland, outperformed the United States in problem-solving.

• Male 15-year-olds outperformed female 15-year-olds in mathematics literacy in the United States and two-thirds of the other participating countries. However, there was no difference in performance between males and females in problem-solving in the United States or in most (32 of the 39) participating countries.

• White students performed above the OECD average in mathematics literacy and problem-solving, while Black and Hispanic students performed below the OECD average.

• U.S. scores in the two mathematics literacy content areas that were measured in 2000 (space and shape, change and relationships) did not change from 2000 to 2003. About two-thirds of participating countries outperformed the United States in these topics in 2000 and 2003.

• As in PISA 2000, U.S. students scored at the OECD average in reading literacy in 2003.

• U.S. students scored below the OECD average in science literacy in 2003.

In releasing the U.S. findings, Robert Lerner, commissioner of NCES, said, "PISA provides important information about education in the United States and in other industrialized nations, giving us an external perspective on U.S. performance. We need PISA in particular because it offers such a different measure of achievement, one that poses complex problems that students might realistically encounter in their lives."

For further information on PISA or to download the report International Outcomes of Learning in Mathematics and Science Literacy: PISA 2003 Results From the U.S. Perspective, please visit NCES' PISA Web site at http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa.

The PISA report can also be ordered by calling toll-free 1-877-4ED-PUBS (1-877-433-7827), TTY/TTD 1-877-576-7734; e-mailing edpubs@inet.ed.gov, or making a request via the Internet at www.edpubs.org.

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