Presentation issue 20º

PISA 2012: Lessons and reflections

The International Student Assessment Program (PISA) of the OECD (Organization for Cooperation and Development) has become the international portrait of education systems, which has come with the will to stay and be increasingly influential, especially for the media dimension it has acquired and its peculiar way, considered by many successful, to externally evaluate students in the so-called basic competences. Its influence has served to fix the look in those countries that are able to obtain the best results in these tests and to generate a search for answers to these results, of possible measures that could adopt those educational systems that want to improve. This trend is no stranger to the Spanish reality, where in the preamble of the LOMCE (Organic Law 8/2013, of December 9, for the improvement of educational quality) appear expressions such as "the current system does not allow progress towards an improvement of the educational quality, as evidenced by the results obtained by students in the international assessment tests such as PISA (Program for International Student Assessment), "," the PISA 2009 Report shows some results for Spain that highlight the insufficient level obtained in reading comprehension, mathematical competence and scientific competence, far from the average of the OECD countries. "" External end-of-stage evaluations constitute one of the main novelties of LOMCE with respect to the previous framework and one of the measures called to improve more directly the quality of the education system. Twenty countries of the OECD carry out tests of this nature to their students and the evidence indicates that their implementation has an impact of at least sixteen points of improvement according to the PISA criteria. "However, there is no shortage of critical voices about its content, development, and especially its results.

In this issue of Advances in Educational Supervision we have proposed to continue contributing points of view around the PISA tests.

In the first place, Julio Carabaña analyzed the problem of the low results of Spanish students of 15 years of age in the problem solving test of PISA-2012. As noted, reviewed data and analysis of the OECD, "the main cause of the difference between the test of problem solving and Reading, Mathematics and Science is the use of computers in the administration of the test", leaving clear the controversial use of such tools.

Antonio Villar, studies in his article the degree of equity of the Spanish educational system. It concludes that "There are important differences in equal opportunities between the Spanish autonomous communities" and that "The greatest equality of opportunities occurs in the communities with the best educational performance."

Esteban Vázquez-Cano, Eloy López-Meneses and Fabrizio Manuel Sirignano analyze in their article the incidence of eight variables of the PISA-2012 carried out in Finland and Spain "grouped typologically into three areas: family environment, use of internet for reading activities and availability of books at home in the results of the reading competition of students from both countries. "

Guillermo Torres Zambrano, focuses his article on one of the most controversial aspects of the PISA tests: its media coverage and how to influence public opinion. In its analysis, extrapolated to the context of other countries, it analyzes what has been published in the main Colombian newspapers, and how to generate opinions mainly on numerical results, more than on any other aspect.

Guillermina Tiramonti performs an analysis of the results obtained in the context of Latin America, where eight countries in the region (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Colombia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru) participate since the year 2000 of the PISA tests, starting from a brief overview of the socio-educational situation in which they are immersed, and that should be considered when analyzing results.

Ildefonso Méndez Martínez, concludes in his article the idea that "Spanish society does not pay enough attention to perseverance, responsibility or the ability to postpone rewards as qualities to foster in a child."

In addition to these articles focused on PISA-2012, another nine articles are published, an interesting interview with Antonio Villar, the review of the book "Self-evaluation of educational centers. How to improve from within. "And the review of the magazine Con-Ciencia Social that in its number 17 was entitled" Forms of resistance and modes of education "

I hope this new issue is in the interest of all of you.

The editorial board.