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• 07Dec2010

  UK schools slip in PISA rankings

  Posted by George Dugdale

  The latest results from the OECD’s assessment of the literacy, maths and science levels of 15-year-olds in education systems across the world have been released today, and the UK has slipped down the rankings. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey ranks the literacy scores of 15-year-olds in the UK as 25th of the 65 countries that took part. This is down from 17th out of 58 countries in 2006 and 7th out of 35 in 2000. Although UK pupils scored slightly above the OECD average, this trend is something the coalition government will be keen to reverse, particularly as they wish to put more emphasis on international comparison studies.

  Initial evaluation of the survey and the OECD’s own analysis reveals three key factors that play into pupils' literacy attainment: enjoyment of reading; socio-economic background; and the home learning environment. Countries that ensure equality of opportunity, work to develop cultures of reading at home and promote reading for pleasure generally achieve more highly in literacy, and improving these factors must be a key aim in the UK.

  "The best performing school systems manage to provide high-quality education to all students." Although it might sound obvious, this statement holds the secret to those school systems that see the highest outcomes. Some countries, such as the UK and the US, have a high number of pupils achieving at the highest level, but are let down by the number of children who fall a long way below the average. The secret of success in Finland, Canada and others seems to be consistency across the board.

  "Home background influences educational success, and schooling often appears to reinforce its effects." Statistics within the report demonstrate a clear link, across all countries between parents’ educational level and a child’s attainment on the test. The report also points out that changing parental levels of education takes generations. However, we know from other research – both in the UK and internationally – that parental involvement is central to a child’s literacy acquisition and that reading to a child can help overcome socio-economic factors.

  "In all countries, students who enjoy reading the most perform significantly better than students who enjoy reading the least." Crucially the report also found that it is not just reading fiction that improves reading levels "it is students who read a wide variety of material that perform particularly well in reading." The strongest links between reading enjoyment and attainment were found between reading fiction and online reading.

  Clearly all three of these factors are interlinked; parents reading with their children is likely to have an impact on that child’s enjoyment of reading. Likewise, schools that involve parents are likely to achieve better outcomes for all their children. The importance of these three interrelated factors cannot be overstated and it is in these three important areas that the National Literacy Trust will continue to work.          

   

Tags: Children, England, Northern Ireland, Policy, Schools & teaching, Scotland, Social inclusion, Wales

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