Measuring Student Knowledge and Skills

The new program of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), the International Programme for Student Assessment (PISA), represents a commitment by governments of the OECD countries to monitor the outcomes of education in terms of student achievement within a common international framework. The focus will be on students approaching the end of secondary education, and 32 countries plan to take part in the PISA assessments. This document provides the conceptual framework on which the PISA 2000 assessment is based. It defines the domains of reading literacy, mathematics literacy, and scientific literacy forming the core of PISA in terms of the content that students need to acquire, the processes that need to be performed, and the contexts in which knowledge and skills are applied. It also describes the methods used to ensure that the assessment tasks are valid across countries, strong at measuring relevant skills, and based on authentic life situations. Two appendixes contain a list of the expert group members and a discussion of considerations for future survey cycles of the OECD/PISA. (Contains 20 figures and 53 references.) (SLD)