Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018: Highlights from Scotland’s results

Scotland’s Chief Statistician today published Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018: Highlights from Scotland’s Results. PISA is an assessment of 15 year-olds around the world in reading, maths and science.

The main findings are:

- Scotland’s performance in the PISA assessments was above the OECD average in reading and similar to the OECD average in maths and science. In the previous survey in 2015, Scotland was similar to the OECD average in reading, maths and science.

- Scotland’s own overall performance compared to 2015 improved in reading and was similar in maths and science. Performance in reading is now similar to 2012, 2009 2006 and 2003, but lower than 2000.

- In science, Scotland’s performance was similar to 2015, but lower than in 2012, 2009 and 2006. In maths, Scotland’s performance was similar to 2009, 2012 and 2015.

- The proportion of pupils performing at highest levels of achievement (“Level 5 and above”) were higher in Scotland than the OECD average in reading and similar in maths and science. The proportion of pupils performing at the lowest levels of achievement (“below Level 2”) were lower in Scotland than the OECD average in reading and similar in maths and science.

- The gradient and strength of relationship between reading performance and social background was similar to 2015, and remains lower than the OECD average. The strength of relationship between performance and social background in reading and maths was lower than the OECD average in 2018.