PERFORMANCE AND ENGAGEMENT ACROSS …

1 reading FOR change PERFORMANCE AND ENGAGEMENT ACROSS COUNTRIES RESULTS FROM PISA 2000 Irwin KirschJohn de JongDominique LafontaineJoy McQueenJuliette MendelovitsChristian MonseurOECDORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENTORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENTP ursuant to Article 1 of the Convention signed in Paris on 14th December 1960, and which came into force on 30th September 1961, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shall promote policies designed: to achieve the highest sustainable economic growth and employment and a rising standard of living in Member countries, while maintaining fi nancial stability, and thus to contribute to the development of the world economy; to contribute to sound economic expansion in Member as well as non-member countries in the process of economic development.

2 And to contribute to the expansion of world trade on a multilateral, non-discriminatory basis in accordance with international original Member countries of the OECD are Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The following countries became Members subsequently through accession at the dates indicated hereafter: Japan (28th April 1964), Finland (28th January 1969), Australia (7th June 1971), New Zealand (29th May 1973), Mexico (18th May 1994), the Czech Republic (21st December 1995), Hungary (7th May 1996), Poland (22nd November 1996), Korea (12th December 1996) and the Slovak Republic (14th December 2000).

3 The Commission of the European Communities takes part in the work of the OECD (Article 13 of the OECD Convention).The Centre for Educational Research and Innovation was created in June 1968 by the Council of the Organisation for Economic Co-opera-tion and Development and all Member countries of the OECD are participants. The main objectives of the Centre are as follows: Analyse and develop research, innovation and key indicators in current and emerging education and learning issues, and their links to other sectors of policy; Explore forward-looking coherent approaches to education and learning in the context of national and international cultural, social and economic change .

4 And Facilitate practical co-operation among Member countries and, where relevant, with non-member countries, in order to seek solutions and exchange views of educational problems of common Centre functions within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in accordance with the decisions of the Council of the Organisation, under the authority of the Secretary-General. It is supervised by a Governing Board composed of one national expert in its fi eld of competence from each of the countries participating in its programme of credit: PhotoDisc OECD 2002 Permission to reproduce a portion of this work for non-commercial purposes or classroom use should be obtained through the Centre fran ais d exploitation du droit de copie (CFC), 20, rue des Grands-Augustins, 75006 Paris, France, tel.

5 (33-1) 44 07 47 70, fax (33-1) 46 34 67 19, for every country except the United States. In the United States permission should be obtained through the Copyright Clearance Center, Customer Service, (508)750-8400, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923 USA, or CCC Online: All other applications for permission to reproduce or translate all or part of this book should be made to OECD Publications, 2, rue Andr -Pascal, 75775 Paris Cedex 16, OECD2002 FOREWORDFOREWORDC ompelling incentives for individuals, economies and societies to raise levels of education have been the driving force behind the concern of governments to improve the quality of educational services.

6 The prosperity of OECD countries now derives to a large extent from its human capital and the opportunities for its citizens to acquire knowledge and skills that will enable them to continue learning throughout their lives. The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) was set up to measure how well young adults near the end of compulsory schooling are prepared to meet the challenges of today s knowledge societies. PISA is forward-looking, focusing on young people s ability to reflect on and apply their knowledge and skills to meet the challenges of adult life in the real world.

7 PISA is conducted once every three years, and is organised around three domains: mathematical literacy, reading literacy and scientific literacy. In each three-year cycle one of these three domains is the major focus of data collection. In 2000, when the first PISA data collection occurred, reading literacy was the major domain, accounting for over two thirds of the testing content. reading literacy is not only seen as a necessary foundation for PERFORMANCE in other subject areas within an educational context, but it is also a prerequisite for successful participation in most areas of adult life.

8 Today s world calls for citizens to become life-long learners. To meet this goal, students must be prepared to handle the variety of printed and written information that they will encounter throughout their report presenting the first results of PISA 2000 was published in 2001 (OECD, 2001b) covering results in all three domains and looking at the relationship between student PERFORMANCE in these areas and selected characteristics of individuals, families and schools. This report refines and extends the discussion of the reading literacy results contained in the first title of this report, reading for change , intends to capture two major messages.

9 The first refers to achievement in reading literacy: PISA results suggest that changing and improving students reading proficiency could have a strong impact on their opportunities in later life. The second message refers to ENGAGEMENT in reading : levels of interest in and attitudes toward reading , the amount of time students spend on reading in their free time and the diversity of materials they read are closely associated with PERFORMANCE in reading literacy.

10 Furthermore, while the degree of ENGAGEMENT in reading varies considerably from country to county, 15-year-olds whose parents have the lowest occupational status but who are highly engaged in reading obtain higher average reading scores in PISA than students whose parents have high or medium occupational status but who report to be poorly engaged in reading . This suggests that finding ways to engage students in reading may be one of the most effective ways to leverage social in countries in which there is generally a high level of reading proficiency, there are substantial numbers of 15-year-olds who are not proficient readers which is likely to limit them in their choices and opportunities in their future life.