Ranking the rankings
International comparisons are popular, influential—and sometimes flawed
EDUCATION ministers across the globe quake in the run-up to the publication, every three years, of the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which rates 15-year-olds’ academic performance in dozens of countries. Those that do well can expect glory; the first PISA ranking, published in 2001, surprised the world by putting unshowy Finland near the top in every subject and made it a mandatory stop-off for any self-respecting education policymaker. Germany’s poor showing, by contrast, led to national hand-wringing, school reforms and the creation of a €4 billion ($5 billion) federal education support programme.
This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Ranking the rankings”
International
November 8th 2014
From the November 8th 2014 edition
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