I. Overview of the International Student Assessment Program (PISA)

Pisa (programme for international student assessment) is a cooperative project of OECD member countries. It is also one of the most influential international student learning evaluation projects in the world. Its purpose is to measure the knowledge and ability of young people (15 years old) who are preparing for society when compulsory education is coming to an end.

PISA measures students' reading ability, mathematics ability and scientific ability in the form of paper-and-pencil test, so as to know whether students have the knowledge and skills needed for future life. Students also need to complete a questionnaire about their background and attitude. PISA is tested every three years, with one aspect of ability as the main factor (2/3) and the other two aspects as the supplement (1/3). In 2000, we paid attention to reading ability, in 2003, we paid attention to mathematical ability, in 2006, we paid attention to scientific ability, and the second cycle began in 2009. In addition, in 2003, PISA added the test of problem solving ability.

PISA was initiated and participated by OECD member countries, and other non-member countries and regions also participated. China, Hongkong, China, Macau, China and Taipei, China all participated, and China and Shanghai are planning to participate in 2009. In 2000, 43 countries and regions participated in the PISA test, 465,438+0 in 2003 and 58 in 2006. The number of students in each country or region ranges from 4500 to 10000. After three tests in 2000, 2003 and 2006, PISA's novel, standardized and scientific design and strict control standards have attracted worldwide attention and strong response. PISA has now developed into the most influential academic evaluation in the world, and the total GDP of participating countries and regions accounts for 86% of the world.

Second, the background of PISA development

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is a global international organization, and its research in many fields such as economy, society, environment, education and public policy has become a necessary reference for many governments to formulate development policies. With the advent of the era of knowledge economy, all countries need to formulate national long-term development plans, among which the educational development strategy is very important, which requires comparable information on the return on investment in educational manpower and financial resources. However, up to now, the focus of international testing is on students' mastery of public courses in a certain region of the country, which is an effective but limited method to measure achievements, but it lacks an equivalent and reliable method to measure educational results suitable for all countries. Therefore, from 1997 to 2002, the OECD implemented a large-scale transnational research program, which was named "Definition and Selection of Competence: Theoretical and Conceptual Basis (DeSeCo)". The project is sponsored by Swiss Federal Statistical Office, and carried out in cooperation with the National Center for Education Statistics of the United States Department of Education and Statistics Canada. On the basis of DeSeCo, the International Student Assessment Program (PISA) was developed.

PISA is a cooperative process, bringing together world-class academic experts from more than 30 countries and regions. On the basis of benefit sharing and under the guidance of the governments of OECD member countries, Pisa has developed a method that is comparable in different countries and cultural backgrounds, measures relevant skills effectively, and evaluates students based on real living conditions.

The purpose of PISA is to describe the education quality level of each country through a set of international education quality indicators that can measure the educational achievements and the sampling test results of students from various countries. PISA evaluation tries to reflect: (1) Can the direction of school teaching efforts and the advantages and disadvantages of courses make students' learning more effective? (2) What kind of education system and teaching practice can maximize the learning effect of students from disadvantaged backgrounds? (3) To what extent does the quality of school resources affect students' learning effect? ..... and so on. More importantly, it systematically analyzes a wide range of test data to find out the characteristics of the changes in students' learning ability in various countries at the present stage, as well as the social, economic and policy reasons that caused these changes, so as to provide a basis for formulating more effective education policies in various countries and regions.

Third, the key competency framework of programme for international student assessment (PISA).

Undoubtedly, it is a very arduous task to establish a set of evaluation indicators that can be compared in different countries and cultural backgrounds, mainly because the real educational "achievements" cannot be simply measured across countries. We can study how much time people spend on education, or see how many students have passed comparable proficiency tests. But because these tests are different in different countries, it is impossible to really compare the situation of each education system. Especially considering the cultural ways of various countries, it is even more difficult. For example, adults who think in the way of Japanese school training may be suitable for Japanese society; The way of thinking of Swiss students may be adapted to Swiss society. Who can say which is better? In order to overcome the shortcomings and defects of previous education in evaluating students and meet the requirements of social development for quality control of human capital, DeSeCo introduced the measurement and evaluation of human capital from a brand-new perspective, that is, to evaluate the knowledge and skills necessary for students' real life and lifelong learning.