PISA - Programme for International Student Assessment

PISA is the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)'s Programme for International Student Assessment. PISA is designed to measure the ability of 15-year-old adolescents when it comes to using reading, mathematics and science knowledge and skills to address and meet challenges in real-life. 

Developed jointly by OECD member countries through the OECD’s Directorate for Education, PISA looks at how far students approaching the end of compulsory education have succeeded in acquiring some of the knowledge and skills essential that enable individuals' full participation in the knowledge society of today. PISA is an important part of the work of the Directorate for Education of the OECD, which collects data and provides comparative indicators of education systems in OECD member and partner countries.

This programme aims to provide comparable data with a view to enabling countries to improve their education policies and outcomes, while measuring at the same time problem solving and cognition. PISA was conceived to set the information provided by national monitoring of education system performance in a wider context - through regular assessments within a common, internationally agreed framework. In fact, by investigating relationships between student learning and other factors, the metric can offer insights into sources of variation in performances within and between countries.

PISA is sponsored, governed, and coordinated by the OECD and financed by participating countries.