IBSE Final

26 NaTIoNal SCIENCE TEaChERS aSSoCIaTIoN

Chapter 1 The Teaching of Science: Contemporary Challenges

room assessments, and complementary aspects of the system such as teacher

education and initial certification and continued professional development of

teachers and administrators. National standards and the 2009 NAEP framework

can serve as a weak force field that steadily influences decisions over time about

state standards, adoption requirements, textbooks, teacher education programs,

and state and local assessments. Greater alignment among core components of

the education system will enhance student learning and result in higher levels of

achievement as a nation. So the 2009 NAEP framework and national standards

may resolve the apparent contradiction by the nature of their influence on state

and local systems, even as they contribute to greater consistency and coherence

within the educational system.

Why Another Assessment—PISA?

With assessments such as NAEP and TIMSS, one can reasonably ask whether

there is anything different about PISA. PISA does provide a unique perspective

on the assessment landscape, one that complements other tests in that it specifi-

cally measures how well young adults are prepared to meet the challenges of

today’s scientific and technological world. The assessment focuses on young

people’s ability to use their knowledge and apply their skills to real-life situa-

tions. In contrast to assessments such as TIMSS and NAEP, PISA does not directly

focus on curricular outcomes. PISA is not an assessment of the “attained curri-

cula.” PISA measures the application of knowledge in reading, mathematics,

and science to problems in life situations. PISA scores represent the product or

yield of learning experiences at age 15. This is the general picture of PISA. As

an example of PISA’s benefit, the 2006 assessment provides specific information

that likely will be of interest to policy makers and educators as it pertains to the

basic skills needed by U.S. students and our country’s continuing interest in

international competitiveness.

Students’ Basic Skills

In the 2003 survey, PISA analyzed education and presented the basic skills

students will need to thrive in a changing economy. We can take this list of

skills and ask how U.S. students are doing compared with 15-year-olds in other

countries, especially Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

(OECD) countries, as they represent our main economic competitors. What are

these basic skills? And what can we learn about U.S. students’ performance on

these skills from PISA 2003? The following paragraphs answer these questions.

The first basic skills should not surprise any science teacher: the ability to

read and do math at the 9th-grade level or higher. The majority, 61%, of U.S.

15-year-olds participating in PISA were in 10th grade, and 30% were in 9th

grade. It seems PISA would provide a good measure of U.S. achievement on

these skills. In 2003, the average U.S. score in reading literacy was not measur-