| PISA and the Emergence of Global Education Benchmarking The INSTITUTE OF GLOBAL EDUCATION POLICY STUDIES (IGEPS), the Department of EAPS, supported by the School of Education and CASDA, are pleased to announce a two-day conference on "Global Benchmarking in Education" which will focus on the OECD-sponsored Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Some American lawmakers have called for using PISA as a benchmark to assess the learning of American students, but it is far from evident that PISA assesses student learning in ways that are meaningful for public education in the United States—or, for that matter, in many of the other countries where PISA has send government officials scrambling to review and reform education policy. A particular focus of the conference will be on Finland, the country that has scored highest in all three iterations of the assessment, along with many Asian countries. This conference is intended to bring critical scholarship and perspective to bear on a hotly debated topic of signal import to educators around the globe. PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) marks a new era in the organization and internationalization of benchmarking in education. Developed and administered by the OECD (Organization for Economic Development), it is the first time that a non-educational organization, representing economic interests of advanced industrial economies, is making forays into the world of public education. Intended as an assessment to gauge school performance, PISA has emerged as a virtual global education policy authority, shaping education reform in a growing number of nations, as governments are scrambling to bring up the performance level of their public schools. This conference explores the role of PISA as an international educational benchmarking system. How serious should governments take this test? To what extent should domestic reforms be motivated by its results in PISA? Are there cultural, institutional, or historical factors that will inevitably have certain nations like Finland and Singapore score higher in the PISA assessment than others? Is the rush to action at the policy level supported by the validity and reliability of the test's data and design? The conference critically examines PISA's educational and policy role. We explore the institutional and cultural factors of high scoring countries, including national culture, teacher education, curriculum policies, and governance structures. Finally, we raise questions about how PISA as global governance regime can be held accountable. During the conference we will also screen the recent documentary "The Finland Phenomenon" and discuss with experts the causes for Finland's unlikely success. |
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PISA Conference Schedule - Friday December 2, 2011 |
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Film & Panel Discussion: Debating Finland's PISA Success |
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PISA Conference Schedule - Saturday December 3, 2011 |
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International Assessments: Origins, Outcomes, & Policies (9:45 to 10:00) - Welcome: (10:00 to 11:15) - Panel 1 - Origin & Impact of International Assessments (2:00 to 3:00) - Panel 3 - Expanding Outcomes: Socio-Economics and Curriculum (3:00 to 4:00) - Panel 4 - Assessing the Assessors |
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