Assessment, 2000–18

For most countries, the PISA tests are administered on the computer, although paper-based assessments are available for countries in which students do not have widespread access to computers. Unlike other international largescale assessments, the computer-based PISA test is adaptive, so students are assigned blocks of items at their level of ability, depending on their performance on preceding item blocks (OECD 2019).

The number of countries participating in PISA has increased from 43 in the first assessment cycle to 79 in 2018 (OECD 2019). Map 8.3 shows the countries that participated in PISA 2018 and in previous years. Similar to TIMSS and PIRLS, many of the countries are from Europe, Central and East Asia, and the Middle East; however, unlike TIMSS and PIRLS, there are many countries from Latin America and the Caribbean.

PISA presents findings in terms of the overall score of each participating country; the distribution of achievement within each country, including the percentage of students reaching different performance levels; the differences between particular student groups (for example, boys versus girls); and the relative performance in different topic or skill areas.

Figure 8.3 presents PISA 2018 mean scores according to subject and country. Students from four Chinese provinces (Beijing, Jiangsu, Shanghai, and Zhejiang) and Singapore had the highest average achievement on the three PISA assessments, followed by students from Macao SAR, China; and Hong Kong SAR, China.

MAP 8.3. Country Participation in the Programme for International Student Assessment, 2000–18

PISA

Total Testing Rounds Between: 2000-2018

6 5 4 3 2 1 No Data

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Source: Original compilation based on PISA. Note: Some countries have participated at the subnational and national level in Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA): Argentina; Azerbaijan; China; Hong Kong SAR, China; India; Macao SAR, China; United Arab Emirates, United States; and Venezuela, RB.