PISA results – some major takeaways

While much of the media has focussed on the achievement gap between rich and poor students in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results, there are many several interesting takeaways which have not received media attention yet.

These include thoughts from Choice and Fairness co-authors Chris Bonnor and Tom Greenwell, who relate the results to the ALL publication.

“In Australia today, demography is destiny,” – Tom Greenwell.

“The gap in achievement should have authorities worried and prompt a rethink about selective school segregation. The problem is not private versus public…everybody’s chasing a school with advantaged kids in it – and that’s happening in public schools as well.” – Chris Bonnor.

Other reflections include:

Andreas Schleicher, OECD Director for Education and Skills:

“The recipe for equity is about aligning resources with need.”

Andy Mison, President of Australian Secondary Principals Association:

“Australian students demonstrate resilience in PISA results.”

Lisa De Bertoli, senior research fellow at the Australian Council for Education Research:

“When school and student-level socioeconomic background is factored in, both independent and government schools perform better than Catholic schools in maths and science. For reading, results showed there was no advantage for independent students, but government students performed better than Catholic students.”

And for a different slant altogether, researchers Helen Georgiou, University of Wollongong and Sally Larsen, University of New England, ask: Are Australian students really falling behind? It depends on which test you look at?

https://theconversation.com/are-australian-students-really-falling-behind-it-depends-which-test-you-look-at-218709