Research Projects

ACER leads a consortium of research and educational institutions and eminent individuals and holds the major contract to deliver the International PISA project on behalf of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

ACER’s International work on PISA includes:

  * leading the development of the methodology and procedures required to implement the PISA survey in all 66 participating countries;
  * developing and implementing sampling procedures and assisting with monitoring sampling outcomes across participating countries;
  * leading the development of assessment instruments in Reading, Mathematics and Science and instruments for an optional computer-based assessment of reading of electronic texts;
  * developing purpose-built software to assist in sampling and in data capture;
  * analysing all data and assisting the OECD in preparation of the international report.

Following PISA 2000, PISA 2003 and PISA 2006, the first three cycles of an international data gathering strategy that produced indicators on student achievement, ACER has continued work on PISA 2009, the fourth cycle of the study. The PISA project is managed for the OECD by a consortium led by the Australian Council for Educational Research with partners: cApStAn Linguistic Quality Control, the German Institute for International Educational Research (DIPF), the Analysis of Educational Systems and Practices research group (aSPe), Westat Inc., and the Japanese National Institute for Educational Policy Research (NIER).

The fundamental aim of the project is to collect data on students’ knowledge, skills and competencies in Reading , Mathematics and Science for OECD countries. Approximately 66 countries are participating in PISA 2009 and a further eight countries are implementing PISA 2009 on a one-year delayed timeline. The Data Strategy stresses that the data collection should include both curriculum-focused and cross-curricular elements so that broadly defined content areas, not narrowly defined subject matter knowledge, are assessed. The PISA target population is students aged 15, the highest age at which enrolment in OECD countries is essentially universal.

For PISA 2009 the major assessment domain is Reading including reading literacy using electronic texts. Data collection for PISA 2009 is undertaken in 2009 and analysis of data will be conducted during 2010. The international report is due for release in 2010.

PISA 2009 results will be released in December 2010 .

Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), France

Ross Turner

Visit the international OECD PISA website to download International reports and data. Visit the MyPISA website (https://mypisa.acer.edu.au/) to download project documents and research papers.