Programme for International Student Assessment, 2009 [Canada]

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a collaborative effort among OECD member countries to measure how well 15-year-old students approaching the end of compulsory schooling are prepared to meet the challenges of today's knowledge societies. The assessment is forward-looking: rather than focusing on the extent to which these students have mastered a specific school curriculum, it looks at their ability to use their knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges. This orientation reflects a change in curricular goals and objectives, which are increasingly concerned with what students can do with what they learn at school. PISA assesses: the extent to which students can use their reading skills to understand and interpret the various kinds of written material that they are likely to meet as they negotiate their daily lives; the extent to which students can use their mathematical knowledge and skills to solve various kinds of numerical and spatial challenges and problems; and the extent to which students can use their scientific knowledge and skills to understand, interpret and resolve various kinds of scientific situations and challenges.