The OECD and the local: PISA-based Test for Schools in the USA

Abstract

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has recently piloted the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)-based Test for Schools in the USA. In this paper, I contend that by connecting directly with local school boards this new initiative has the potential to further promote the OECD's educational agenda in local policy debates. I begin to develop this argument by providing an overview of the OECD and its work. I then lay out a theoretical framework around global governance and knowledge production within the context of the OECD. Next, I provide a brief overview of the traditional PISA study and compare it to the new PISA-based Test for Schools initiative. This context provides the foundation for a discussion of the ways in which a school-based international assessment can operate as a governance tool, allowing international organizations to have greater influence in the formation and implementation of local educational policies.

Keywords:

• OECD
• PISA
• assessment
• PISA-based Test for Schools
• governance
• global

Notes

1. In the USA, the assessment is being called the “OECD Test for Schools (based on PISA).”

2. http://www.ctb.com/ctb.com/control/aboutUsNewsShowAction?newsId=58716&p=aboutUs

3. Shanghai, China has recently come under scrutiny for its sampling selection. Although the OECD maintains, there has been no sampling discrepancies there is ample reason to question these findings (see Loveless, 2014).

4. The focus on 15-year-olds rather than a grade is largely because 15 is the last year of compulsory education in a number of OECD countries.