Recent results from PISA 2018…Why our students maths skills are on the slide

PISA is the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment. PISA measures 15-year-olds’ ability to use their reading, mathematics and science knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges. 

Recent results from PISA 2018 has seen Australia’s results fall since the early 2000s:

• While Australia’s reading performance in PISA 2018 was similar to that observed in 2015, when considering a longer period, mean performance in reading has been steadily declining, from initially high levels, since the country first participated in PISA in 2000.
• Performance in mathematics has been declining too since 2003, and in science, since 2012.
• In reading, more rapid declines were observed amongst the country’s lowest-achieving students. However, 13% of disadvantaged students in Australia were able to score in the top quarter of reading performance within Australia, indicating that disadvantage is not necessarily destiny.
• In mathematics and science, performance declined to a similar extent at the top and the bottom of the performance distribution, as well as on average.

Ballarat based education expert and author Greg Ashman recently interviewed by Steve Martin explained this is because the Australian education system is plagued by some bad ideas and less of a focus on research evidence. Listen to Greg Ashman here for the full explanation.