The authors of our text contend that the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is on its way to becoming the centerpiece in a world-wide movement of educational reform.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development sponsors PISA. According to MarlaineLockeed, the developed countries, such as the United States, joined such assessments in the 1980s to improve understanding of their educational systems.

In the 1990s, developing countries agreed to use assessments like PISA when international donor agencies recommended it and supported it. Lockeed pointed out that PISA is the most popular of all available measures because it appeals to economists, articles about it appear in economic journals, and the OECD supports it through a large budget. No one seems to ask if it is the best test.

On the basis of the above statement, your reading, your own thought, please consider the following questions in your essay.

1. What are the OECD and PISA? What types of educational reforms do they encourage?

2. Why would countries open their schools to the OECD and employ PISA?

3. What good effects does such an assessment have? What dangerous effects are there?

4. Does knowing about PISA help prospective teachers in the U.S. become better professionals? If so, why? If not, why not?