Highlights from Education at a Glance 2008
Highlights from Education at a Glance 2008 is an introduction to OECD’s collection of internationally comparable data on education and learning. It includes data on enrolment and attainment, impacts on jobs and incomes, educational spending, class size and instruction time, and performance of education systems.
Each indicator is presented on a two-page spread. The left-hand page explains the significance of the indicator, discusses the main findings, examines key trends and provides readers with a roadmap for finding out more in the OECD education databases and in other OECD education publications. The right-hand page contains clearly presented charts and tables, accompanied by dynamic hyperlinks (StatLinks) that direct readers to the corresponding data in Excel™ format.
Also available in: French
What is PISA?
Centre for Educational Research and Innovation
PISA seeks to measure how well students who are nearing the end of compulsory education are prepared to meet the challenges of today’s knowledge societies – what PISA refers to as “literacy”. The aim of the assessment is not to judge the extent to which students have mastered a specific school curriculum. Rather, it focuses on young people’s ability to use their knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges.
The tests involve a sample of 15-year-old students in each country, who complete pencil-and-paper measuring reading, mathematical and scientific literacy. Students also fill in questionnaires about themselves, which cover a range of questions, including their attitudes to learning and their family background, while their principals complete questionnaires about their schools.
Also available in: French