The National Education Council (CNE) organizes the international conference 'Beyond PISA Results' that brings together national and international perspectives on PISA. The aim of the conference is to discuss how the information gathered by PISA may help identifying the critical components of education systems and inform public policies that may bring quality and equity to the systems. It will be also discussed how data resulting from international assessments is and could be used, handled and communicated to and by educational actors (policy makers, media, schools, students and families). The conference will have as speakers Andreas Schleicher from OECD, Tim Oates from Cambridge Assessment, Patricia Perez from European Commission, among others.
PROGRAMME
Where and when: May, 16 at 9.30am | National Education Council auditorium
The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) evaluates education systems by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students and from this international survey results one of the largest databases about education systems worldwide.
According to OECD’s website in the 2015 PISA edition ‘over half a million students, representing 28 million 15-year-olds in 72 countries and economies, took the internationally agreed two-hour test. Students were assessed in science, mathematics, reading, collaborative problem solving and financial literacy’.
The data from PISA surveys relates not only to the test results, but also to the questionnaires undertaken by students, school principals, parents and teachers.
Considering all these data available, the aQeduto project (www.aqeduto.pt) was created, a partnership between the National Council of Education and Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. This research project analyses PISA databases from 2000 to 2012, providing highlights reports and quantitative data analyses that aim to help understanding and explaining Portugal’s positive evolution in PISA, identifying the weaknesses and strengths of the Portuguese education system and comparing it with other European education systems. This project has as main objective to bring evidence on education issues to education specialists and policy makers but also to a non-specialist public. To do so 11 forums were held monthly between December 2015 and November 2016, where the data and analyses were presented. Moreover, the recently released information and data from PISA 2015 is now being integrated in this study.