Behind Global Education Ranking
Behind Global Education Ranking by Evelyn Bourassa Every three years, nearly 80 world’s education systems are ranked. When the results are released, we scrutinize the results. We revere top performing countries. For countries that don’t score as well, administrators scramble to make changes to the curriculum before the next round of tests. Much of the emphasis in the media is on the ranking itself, where the United States is on the list, and theories as to why we are not improving our score. According to OECD, the ranking isn’t meant to be a contest; its intent is to assist participating countries to provide the best education possible. Who Ranks The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) did not develop this ranking to give countries bragging rights; rather it provides statistical data on schools whose board members help write the test. According to the OECD, the rankings real purpose is to analyze top-performing test countries to see what they do in the classroom. It’s an opportunity for countries to learn from one another, to utilize what is a good fit for their pedagogy and culture, keeping what suits their system. In collaboration with its partners, the OECD administers a test every three years to randomly-selected 15-year-old students. The test targets this age because most OECD-participating countries set 15 as nearing the end of obligatory education (oecd.org/pisa). In 2015, 72 OECD countries participated; in 2018, 80 countries are anticipated to participate (oecd.org/pisa).
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