The increasing use of low-stakes international assessments highlights the importance of test-taking efforts. Previous studies have used self-reported and response time-based measures to examine this effort. Although differences between these measures have been suggested, their association with performances and potential gender gaps remains…

This study aimed to compare key predictors of academic resilience in the distinctive socio-cultural contexts of South Korea and the United States, employing a machine-learning-based random forest technique. Using PISA 2018 data, we focused on students in the bottom 25% of family socioeconomic status, totaling 1,654 in South Korea and 1,175 in the…

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has a key role in driving educational discourse and global educational governance. Its comparative 'Programme of International School Assessment' (PISA) has explicitly linked the knowledge and skills of young people with the economic potential of countries. Through the International…

Secretary of Education Duncan (2010) lamented the state of U.S. education in 2010 after the release of the results from the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). He wrote: "Unfortunately, the 2009 PISA results show that American students are poorly prepared to compete in today's knowledge economy. President Obama has…

Independent schools are, for the most part, exempt from mandatory participation in standardized tests designed for state and federal comparisons, nor are they required to take part in comparative international assessments. The anxiety in the broader culture, however, is driving a growing interest among independent school parents (and prospective…

International achievement comparison studies assess students on core subjects such as Reading, Mathematics and Science. Students who do not speak the test language at home can be expected to be disadvantaged because of language proficiency. The test language effect has not been given sufficient attention. The present study investigated probable…

Background: In PISA 2009, seven East Asian countries rank high among the 65 participating countries, but some of the differences among the seven countries are small to be of substantive meaning. Aims: This paper is an attempt to fine tune the comparisons for better understanding of the situation in East Asian. Sample: Data of the seven East Asian…

In 1997 the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) partnered with countries around the world to design the ambitious and innovative Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Beginning in 2000, and every three years since, OECD/PISA has assessed 15-year-old students in participating countries to gauge the extent…

This article examines how international differences in age-grade distributions and grade effects contribute to science scores among 27 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. As shown in the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment, countries vary substantially in the grade distribution of 15-year-olds. The costs…

On assessments such as Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) (Stigler & Hiebert, 1999) and Program for International Assessment (PISA) ("PISA 2006 Science Competencies for Tomorrow's World", 2007) students in the United States have not been performing as well in mathematics as students in other countries. In…

American 15-year-olds continue to perform no better than at the industrial-world average in reading and science, and below that in mathematics. According to the results of the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests, released in December 2010 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United…

The release of the latest results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) garnered all the usual headlines about America's lackluster performance and the rise of competitor nations. To be sure, the findings--that America's fifteen-year-olds perform in the middle of the pack in both reading and math--are disconcerting for a…

PISA, the OECD's international program of assessment of reading, scientific and mathematical literacy, aims to assess the knowledge and skills that students have acquired at school and their ability to use them in everyday tasks and challenges. It also uses questionnaires to gather data on students' attitudes to learning and the conditions of…

The participation of large numbers of countries in current international assessments involving reading literacy--40 in PIRLS 2006 (administered to students in Grade 4 in primary schools) and 57 in PISA 2006 (administered to 15-year-olds in post-primary schools)--suggests that governments and other bodies find the outcomes to be useful. This…

Many articles and reports have reviewed, researched, and commented on international assessments from the perspective of exploring what is relevant for the United States' education systems. Researchers make claims about whether the top-performing systems have transferable practices or policies that could be applied to the United States. However,…