There are “serious flaws” in the way the UK Government measures educational performance, according to a new study

The government rely on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) PISA data which tests 15-year-olds in reading, science and mathematics in around 80 countries to see how pupils in the UK rank internationally.

PISA results have consistently driven changes to schooling systems across the globe and in the UK. PISA has also become the main resource to compare outcomes across its four devolved nations, making it the only cross-national assessment, measured on a regular basis.

The study, published today online and in the forthcoming edition of the Review of Education, analyses results from the OECD PISA study and highlights serious concerns about the 2018 edition data for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

The peer-reviewed research also finds that key limitations with the data have not been transparently reported – particularly by the Scottish Government and Professor Jerrim is now calling for the Office of Statistics Regulation to conduct an urgent review of how this key piece of education data is reported.

In addition, the study finds that low levels of participation in countries such as England and Scotland may have resulted in potential biases in the PISA data with low achieving pupils being underrepresented. In the case of Wales, he finds that PISA mathematics scores could be inflated by as much as 15 points. This could lead Wales to fall seven places in the world rankings; significantly below the international average, taking Wales on a par with countries such as Malta and Belarus.

Report author, Professor Jerrim (UCL Social Research Institute, part of UCL Institute of Education) said: “PISA is meant to be a representative study of 15-year-olds across the UK. But there are serious flaws with some children being excluded from the study, schools being unwilling to participate, and some pupils not showing up for the test.

“In England and Wales, there is clear evidence that some lower-achieving pupils have been systematically excluded. While what has happened in Scotland is, frankly, a bit of a mess.”

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