PISA 2018 Results - Part II

               This post is a summary of two books, the first with the title of,"PISA Results 2018 III at https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/2592c974-en.pdf?expires=1577623582&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=B1382958325D85A6177C52AB9DBD38and the second with the title of, "Balancing School Choice and  Equity: An International Perspective Based on PISA," both published in November 2019 at  https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/2592c974-en.pdf?expires=1577623582&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=B1382958325D85A6177C52AB9DBD38E5

              PISA is a triennial survey of 15-year-old students around the world that assesses the extent to which they have acquired key knowledge and skills essential for full participation in social and

economic life. PISA  is used as a assessment tool in many regions around the world. It was implemented in 32 regions in the first assessment in 2000 and in 2018, 79 countries and municipalities participated in PISA. The PISA 2018 results are released in six volumes: Volume 1: What Students Know and can do. Volume II: Where All Students Can Succeed. Volume III: What School Life Means for Students' Lives. Volume IV: Are Students Smart about Money? Volume V: Effective Policies, Successful Schools. On average across OECD countries, the most common disciplinary problems in lessons were that students do not listen to what the teacher says and that there is noise and disorder. There are wide variations across regions in the disciplinary climate. Albania, China, Belarus, Japan, Korea and Vietnam show the most positive disciplinary climate, while Argentina, Brazil, France, Greece, and Spain show the least positive climate. For instance, in Japan only 3% of students reported that there is noise in every lesson, compared to 23% in France. Difference across schools are also large. According to studemts' reports, in a majority of countries the disciplinary climate was more positive in socio-economically advantaged than in disadvantaged schools, while in only 5 countries: China, Moldova, Morocco, Panama and Peru, the disciplinary climate was better in disadvantaged schools. On average across countries, the disciplinary climate was better in private schools than in public schools, while the opposite is true only in Japan  and Taiwan. Moreover, the disciplinary climate was similar in rural and urban schools across countries. However, the disciplinary climate in rural schools was more positive than in city schools in Belarus, Jordan, Mexico, Russia and Ukraine. Girls reported a better disciplinary climate in lessons than boys did, on average across countries. Only in Denmark and Finland did boys reported a better disciplinary climate than girls. PISA 2009 and PISA 2018 asked students the same question about the disciplinary climate. A comparison of both cycles reveals that the disciplinary climate generally improved during this period. This improvement in disciplinary climate was remarkable in Albania, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Korea, Moldova, Norway, Serbia and UAE.

                    Over the past decades, school-choice programmes have expanded in scope and size in most of the countries with available data. These opportunities take diverse forms and vary widely in scope across countries. Schools-assignment mechanisms, through which students are allocated to schools based on their expressed preferences and not only on geographic considerations, have been introduced in different places. In addition, private schools are a common alternative to public schools. Usually, parents must pay fees or schools charges for enrolling their children in private schools, but several schools-choice programmes try to reduce the cost of private schooling for families. The most popular of these are educational voucher programmes, whereby parents are given a tuition certificate by their government that can be used to pay tuition at any 'approved" schools. The tuition may be distributed to families or directly to schools. In many countries, private schools are primarily funded by the government, sometimes to the same extent as public schools. This is the case in several European countries, including Belgium, France and the Netherlands. In the 1990s, several countries, namely Colombia, New Zealand, Sweden and the U.S. promoted school choice either through school-voucher systems or by establishing charter schools (publicly funded schools that operate independently of the state-run system) similar reforms were adopted recently in the U.K. Families are left with a wide range of options. Schools choice is based on various ideas. The introduction of "market based" policies is based on the idea, that competition between schools will foster innovation and improve school efficiency. The fact that parents may select their child's school puts pressure on schools to improve the education they provide in order to attract and retain students.