Parents, principals will be required to complete international student assessment survey

High schools across the island will participate in PISA for the first time in 2021.

Speaking at a recent JIS News Think Tank, National Programme Manager for PISA, Marjorianna Clarke, said that the purpose of the principals survey is to gather information on the school’s management and how school affects student learning.

She noted that the questionnaire to be completed by parents will capture socioeconomic data and highlight the influence of the parent on student learning.

“We will get a triangulated view of the education system when we combine the students’ assessment with the questionnaires. It gives us robust data about how our [education] system is performing,” Ms. Clarke said.

National Mathematics Coordinator, and member of the PISA management team, Dr. Tamika Benjamin, explained that the “main purpose of PISA is to generate comparable data on educational systems across the world that can be used to drive educational policies and improve student outcome”.

She said the test evaluates 15-year-old students, who are near the end of their secondary education, “to see how well they have developed the skills and competencies they will need to function in a global environment”.

Jamaica is the only English-speaking Caribbean country among 87 states that will be participating in the 2021 administration of PISA.

The non-curriculum-based assessment will be administered over six to eight weeks and the results will be shared.

The twofold assessment will require students to complete a survey to examine their learning style in addition to a cognitive component.

Each student will be tested on mathematics along with either science, reading skills or creative thinking.

More than 90 countries have participated in the assessment initiated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2000.