The results of the OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), the most important comparative international education survey, give some grounds for optimism about the achievements of Israeli 15-year old students, but there is still a long way to go. The 2009 PISA results, published today, show that while Israel achieved a substantial improvement of 35 points in the reading test, the country's pupils are treading water in mathematics and the sciences.
Moreover, Israel's score is well below the average of the OECD, in which Israel is included for the first time.
Israel's score in the reading tests rose to 474 points from 439 points in the previous test in 2006, putting Israel in 36th place out of the 64 countries included in the PISA survey, compared with 40th place out of 57 countries in 2006. The OECD average rose by just one point in the reading tests, to 493 points, but this still puts Israel 19 points below the average. Since Israel first participated in the PISA tests in 2002, its score in the reading tests has risen 22 points, with a sharp drop in 2006.
The OECD conducts the PISA tests every three years. It favorably viewed Israel's strong gains in reading literacy, which was mentioned in the press announcement, alongside improvements inChile, Poland, Hungary, Korea, and Germany.
However, there are still wide discrepancies between Israel's Hebrew speakers and its Arabic speakers, which is consistent with other comparative tests, both Israeli and international. In reading, Hebrew speakers beat the OECD average with a score of 498 points, which theoretically would put Israel in 17th place, but the score of Arab speakers was 392 points, theoretically putting Israel in 57th place; there is a 106-point gap between the two communities, which dragged down Israel's overall score, despite the 35-point gain in the reading literacy tests.
Israel's score in the mathematics tests was 447 in 2009, only five points higher than in the previous tests, putting Israel in 41st place, one place lower than in 2006. The OECD average fell by one point to 496 points. This decline did not help Israel narrow the gap, which is 49 points. Israel's score in the mathematics tests has risen 14 points since 2002.
The shortfalls in the mathematics tests do not bode well for Israel. Although the proportion of outstanding student remained unchanged at 6% between 2006 and 2009, the proportion of struggling students fell by only 3%. Here too, the gap between Hebrew and Arabic speakers is 100 points.
Israeli 15-year olds have nothing to crow about in the science tests either. Israel's score rose by just one point to 455 points, and it fell two places to 41st place in 2009 from 39th in 2006.
At a press conference today, Minister of Education Gideon Saar said, "We cannot be satisfied with the achievements in reading. The task of this government's term is to bring about a substantial improvement in the achievements in mathematics and the sciences as well. We must make a special investment in the Arab community, and we are doing it."
South Korea and Finland have long topped the PISA results, but Shanghai Province, which participated in the program for the first time, won all the praise this time. Shanghai scored higher in reading than any country, and topped the table in mathematics and science.
Kyrgyzstan was at the bottom of the rankings in all three fields, just below Peru, Panama, and Azerbaijan. Israel's neighbor Jordan ranked 54th.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 7, 2010
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