Equipping citizens with the skills necessary to achieve their full potential, participate in an increasingly interconnected global economy, and ultimately convert better jobs into better lives is a central preoccupation of policy makers around the world. Results from the OECD’s recent Survey of Adult Skills show that highly skilled adults are twice as likely to be employed and almost three times more likely to earn an above-median salary than poorly skilled adults. In other words, poor skills severely limit people’s access to better-paying and more rewarding jobs. Highly skilled people are also more likely to volunteer, see themselves as actors rather than as objects of political processes, and are more likely to trust others. Fairness, integrity and inclusiveness in public policy thus all hinge on the skills of citizens.

Nearly all adults, not just those with technical or scientific careers, now need to have adequate proficiency in mathematics – as well as reading and science – for personal fulfilment, employment and full participation in society. With mathematics as its primary focus, the PISA 2012 assessment measured 15-year-olds’ capacity to reason mathematically and use mathematical concepts, procedures, facts and tools to describe, explain and predict phenomena, and to make the wellfounded judgements and decisions needed by constructive, engaged and reflective citizens. Literacy in mathematics defined this way is not an attribute that an individual has or does not have; rather, it is a skill that can be acquired and used, to a greater or lesser extent, throughout a lifetime.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) reviews the extent to which students near the end of compulsory education have acquired some of the knowledge and skills that are essential for full participation in modern society, particularly in mathematics, reading and science. This section offers an overview of the Programme, including which countries and economies participate and which students are assessed, what types of skills are measured, and how PISA 2012 differs from previous PISA assessments.

This chapter compares student performance in mathematics across and within countries and economies. It discusses the PISA definition of literacy in mathematics and describes the tasks associated with each PISA proficiency level. The chapter then digs deep into the results of the mathematics assessment, showing gender differences in performance, trends in mathematics performance up to 2012, and differences in students’ abilities to handle certain mathematics processes, such as formulating situations mathematically, and certain mathematics contents, such as uncertainty and data, and space and shape.

This chapter examines whether and how exposure to mathematics content, known as “opportunity to learn”, is associated with student performance. The analysis is based on students’ responses to questions that appeared in the PISA Student Questionnaire on the degree to which they encountered various types of mathematics problems during their schooling, how familiar they were with certain formal mathematics content, and how frequently they had been taught to solve specific mathematics tasks involving formal or applied mathematics.

This chapter examines student performance in reading in PISA 2012. It provides examples of assessment questions, relating them to each PISA proficiency level, discusses gender differences in student performance, compares countries’ and economies’, performance in reading, and highlights trends in reading performance up to 2012.

This chapter examines student performance in science in PISA 2012. It provides examples of assessment questions, relating them to each PISA proficiency level, discusses gender differences in student performance, compares countries’ and economies’ performance in science, and highlights trends in science performance up to 2012.

The PISA 2012 assessment dispels the notion that achievement in mathematics is mainly a product of innate ability rather than hard work. Results also suggest that improvement is possible among high performers as well as among low performers. This chapter considers how education policies of school systems and individual schools are associated with student performance and with gender differences in performance.