Learning for Tomorrow's World: First results from PISA 2003

Learning for Tomorrow's World: First results from PISA 2003:

PISA is the Program for International Student Assessment of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Learning for Tomorrow's World: First results from PISA 2003 presents initial results from the PISA 2003 assessment. "PISA 2003 is the second assessment in the Programme: the first survey was in 2000. Well over a quarter of a million students in 41 countries took part in a two-hour test in their schools, assessing their skills in mathematics, reading, science and problem solving. All 30 OECD member countries participated, as well as 11 partner countries.

Finland, where there are no wholly-private schools, showed higher scores on average than the top-ranking schools in Hong-Kong, Japan and Korea in math and science. The United States showed up in the middle of the countries tested, but statistically-significantly below the OECD average. Serbia, Uruguay, Turkey, Thailand, Mexico, Brazil, Tunisia and Indonesia were at the bottom of the list.