PISA 2018: Lessons for the U.S.

In December of 2019, the OECD’s Andreas Schleicher, the U.S. Department of Education’s Peggy Carr, and NCEE’s Anthony Mackay took an in-depth look at the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 results and lessons they provide for U.S. policy makers and education leaders.

PISA is the foremost study of international education systems. Used to inform and support education policy decision making across the world, PISA 2018 tested the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students from 79 countries and economies. The assessment measured how these students apply their knowledge to solve problems in mathematics, reading and science. The 2018 results show U.S. students’ average scores in reading and mathematics have remained relatively flat since the first assessments were administered in the early 2000s, while average scores in science have increased.

During the webinar, Schleicher and Mackay provided key insights and takeaways from the report and discussed what the findings and trends mean for state policy makers, district leaders and educators as they work to prepare students for an increasingly globalized world. Carr, the Associate Commissioner of the Assessments Division at the Department’s National Center for Education Statistics provided further context and analysis of the U.S. data.