PISA 2015: England’s results investigated

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This post investigates what PISA 2015 results reveal about:

• Progress towards the government’s 2020 national performance targets; and

• Trends in the comparative performance of England’s high attainers.

It complements a parallel post about the TIMSS 2015 results – Troubling TIMSS trends (December 2015).

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About PISA

The results of the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) were published in early December 2016. PISA is a triennial survey of the educational achievement of 15 year-olds overseen by the OECD.

The survey was first undertaken in 2000, so this is the sixth cycle, but there were problems with UK response rates in 2000 and 2003, so this analysis relies on trends over the four cycles between 2006 and 2015.

Seventy-one jurisdictions are listed as participants in the 2015 survey, compared with 65 participants in 2012.

In England the 2015 survey was conducted between November and December 2015 with a sample…

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Troubling TIMSS trends

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This post reassesses

• Progress against the government’s national performance targets and

• The comparative performance of England’s high attaining pupils

following publication of  the TIMSS 2015 international comparisons study.

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About TIMSS

The results of the 2015 Trends in Maths and Science Study (TIMSS) were published at the end of November 2016.

TIMSS is a quadrennial exercise, first undertaken in 1995 and most recently in 2011.

Four assessments are conducted: maths and science at age 9/10 (Year 5) and maths and science at age 13/14 (Year 9).

Fifty-seven countries participated in TIMSS 2015, though numbers undertaking each assessment varied (49 in Y5 maths; 47 in Y5 science and 39 in each of the Y9 assessments).

The National Report makes much of the 20-year trend since 1995, but there were no Y5 assessments in 1999 and in 1995 they drew pupils from both Y4 and Y5. There is greater continuity in…

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