Key Points: PISA Report Puts Spain’s Education System to the Test

PISA, the world’s most influential international education assessment, will put Spain’s school system under scrutiny when its latest results are released Tuesday. The report has often prompted alarm in education ministries and helped drive reforms in countries including Germany and Denmark, although many teachers and experts criticize it for reducing learning to a small set of measurements.

The assessment examines 15-year-old students in reading comprehension, mathematics and science. Produced by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, it began in 2000 and is normally published every three years. The 2022 edition was delayed by a year because of the pandemic.

This edition covers 760,000 students across 90 countries and smaller territorial units, including Hong Kong and Macao, which participate separately from the states to which they belong. Spain tested 30,000 students. The OECD says PISA measures whether teenagers completing compulsory education have the knowledge and skills needed to participate fully in social and economic life.

Unlike Spain’s university entrance examination, PISA does not test a specific syllabus. It measures what students understand and how they solve problems, using questions arranged by difficulty. Repeated “anchor” questions allow results to be compared across countries and over time. Students also complete questionnaires about their personal circumstances, family environment and outlook, while school principals provide information about their schools.

Education sources in Spain have expressed concern about the results because the country’s performance has fallen in the past two editions and the school environment has become more complex. Critics argue that the assessment’s narrow focus can steer reforms away from other roles of schools, including citizenship education.

“

The knowledge and essential skills to participate fully in social and economic life.