The PISA-syndrome - How the OECD has hijacked the way we perceive pupils, schools and education

Abstract

From the mid 1990s, the OECD started the planning of the Program for International Student Assessment, now well known as PISA. 1 The first PISA testing took place early in 2000, and the results were published in December 2001. Since then, PISA results have gradually become a kind of global “gold standard” for educational quality, and educational policy has been globalized, lifted out of the domestic policy, as proudly stated by the PISA director, Andreas Schleicher in the TED-talk quoted below. The presentation is transcribed in 29 languages and has been seen by some 758 thousand viewers.

The role of the OECD in the development of global policies for migrant education

“…In this context, neoliberalism represents an art of government, a form of political reason and a political rationality transcending the notion of ideology and becoming a discourse of theories and ideas emerging in response to the issues within a specific historical period. What the neoliberal paradigm has created is a culture of performativity, which according to previous research is rather reinforced by the OECD through standardisation and global assessment mechanisms (Exley, Braun, & Ball, 2011;Sjøberg, 2019). In the following section, we set out to further discuss how this culture of performativity is formed in the neoliberal paradigm.…”

“…PISA, TIMMS, and PIRLS) exert influence on the standardisation of curriculum content across the globe. Through country rankings that are perceived as signs predicting the economic future of a country (Sjøberg, 2019), the international assessment regime seems to be setting the scene for national educational reforms oriented towards a neoliberal form of quality, which is defined along the "disciplinary forces of the market" (Ball, 1994). This leads to the post-bureaucratic model of regulation and control of the education system that is manifested in the "evaluation, measurement and standards" social object, because standards aspire to ensure consistency and comparability in the everyday conduct that occurs at diverse locations (Fenwick, 2010).…”

“…However, concerns have been raised about the global performativity culture and the dangers of ranking and labelling countries and students (and especially migrants), according to international testing such as PISA and TIMMS (Sjøberg, 2019). Through the globalisation mechanism of international testing and benchmarking, and thus standardisation, neo-liberalism has introduced reform trends to education deriving from the corporate sector such as competition, consumer choice, privatisation, marketoriented management, and decentralisation (Verger et al, 2012).…”

“…As we discussed in other sections above, the OECD mostly influences migrant education through the standardisation mechanism, which mostly prevails through the international assessment of PISA (Sjøberg, 2019). PISA measures 15-year-olds' ability to Table 1.…”

Assessment of practical science in high stakes examinations: a qualitative analysis of high performing English-speaking countries

“…Tables of country rankings on PISA scores are often not only by educational researchers but also policy makers and politicians (Breakspear, 2012;Kjaernsli & Lie, 2011;Sellar & Lingard, 2014). However, there is widespread criticism about the content and processes involved in PISA (Sjøberg, 2019). For example, PISA rankings create panic and discomfort in practically all countries, including high-scoring countries (Alexander, 2012).…”