[News Terms] The Global Student Academic Achievement Assessment Standard 'PISA'

PISA stands for the Program for International Student Assessment by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It is an international assessment that measures the ability of 15-year-old students to apply their knowledge and skills in reading, mathematics, and science to real-life problems. In Korea, the assessment is conducted on students in the 3rd year of middle school and the 1st year of high school.

The assessment has been conducted every three years since 2000 in countries around the world, including OECD member countries. For each cycle, one domain is designated as the main domain, and the other domains as auxiliary domains for analysis. In PISA 2022, mathematics was the main domain. The purpose of this survey is to understand the international average of youth academic achievement and to identify background factors affecting their academic performance, thereby reducing educational disparities among countries. PISA results are also provided as basic data for the formulation of educational policies in each country.

PISA 2022 Results

According to the PISA 2022 results announced by the OECD on the 5th (local time), Korean students’ achievement levels in mathematics, reading, and science were evaluated as top-tier. This survey was supposed to be conducted in 2021 but was postponed by one year due to the impact of COVID-19. A total of 81 countries participated, including 37 OECD member countries. In Korea, 6,931 students from 186 schools were surveyed.

The average scores of Korean students were 527 in mathematics, 515 in reading, and 528 in science, all higher than the OECD averages. Compared to the previous survey, PISA 2018, the average scores in mathematics and reading increased by 1 point each, and science increased by 9 points. In contrast, during the same period, the OECD average scores in mathematics (489→472), reading (487→476), and science (489→485) all declined.

As the average scores of Korean students rose, their rankings also improved. In this survey, among all participating countries, Korea ranked 3rd to 7th in mathematics, 2nd to 12th in reading, and 2nd to 9th in science. In the previous (2018) survey, the rankings were 5th to 9th in mathematics, 6th to 11th in reading, and 6th to 10th in science. For all three subjects, the highest rankings improved by 2 to 4 places. According to OECD standards, Korea ranked 1st to 2nd in mathematics, 1st to 7th in reading, and 2nd to 5th in science, all higher than in the previous survey. PISA assigns ranking ranges considering sampling errors.

Although student achievement levels generally declined worldwide due to shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Korean students’ scores and rankings in each subject all rose, indicating that their achievement levels were maintained.

However, the gap among all students in mathematics was found to be large, which was pointed out as a challenge to be addressed in the future. The within-school variance ratio of Korean students’ mathematics scores was 98.1%, higher than the OECD average of 68.3%. This figure indicates how much the gap between high and low scorers in mathematics within the same school has widened; the higher the number, the greater the disparity.