The Tower of PISA is Badly Leaning. An Argument for Why it Should Be Saved

This story originally appeared in The Washington Post.

What if three-quarters of American school students voluntarily attended daily after-school classes to boost their knowledge of mathematics, literacy, and science? On top of that, imagine if American students were to spend more than two hours a day on homework related to these subjects. This is what their peers do in envied Shanghai, Singapore and South Korea. The United States is banging its head against a Great Wall when it aims to beat these countries in international student assessments.

Since the year 2000, the most developed countries have been able to compare knowledge and skills of their 15-year-old students in reading, mathematics and science in a periodic PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) test. The test has had a towering influence on national educational policies. Many countries whose performance has fallen have gone into ‘PISA shock,’ and shifted direction dramatically to raise their standings and their standards.

As the influence of this international assessment administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has increased, so have the skeptical voices denouncing the nature and consequences of this test. Last year, over a hundred academics around the world called for a moratorium on PISA testing. The tower of PISA is leaning. But unlike some of our colleagues, we will not rejoice if it finally falls...

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