Snapshots issue 16: How much effort are students putting into PISA?

The most recent OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey enables educators, policymakers and the wider community to compare Australian students with each other, as well as with their counterparts across the world. PISA measures the extent to which 15-year-old students near the end of compulsory education have acquired the knowledge and skills that young adults need to meet the challenges of the future. PISA’s results have become increasingly important in evidence-based education policy. The assessment allows students to analyse and reason; apply their knowledge and skills to interpret and solve real-life problems. PISA is regarded as low-stakes for both schools and students. This is because, unlike other formal assessments, students’ results do not impact their grades and the data cannot be linked to the school (although schools do receive feedback on their students’ performance). This Snapshot examines the self-reported levels of effort students invested in the PISA 2018 test and compares it with the effort they reported that they would have invested if the results counted towards their school marks