Rosa María Torres
(in process)
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Critical voices of PISA proliferate in Latin America. At the same time, new countries are ready to participate in PISA 2015. Dissatisfaction and criticism are framed within the growing international criticism to standardized tests and to the growing importance given to educational evaluation worldwide and in this region in particular.
I have compiled here a few texts and statements referred to such criticism and to alternative proposals. Many more are probably out there (meetings, events, publications, fora, blogs, etc.) Please leave any additional information and comments in this blog.
The results of the last UNESCO's LLECE (Laboratorio Lartinoamericano de la Calidad de la Educación) tests will be made public in December 2014. 15 Latin American countries participated. This will be an important input to take stock of where we are as a region in terms of (primary) school outcomes and in terms of the evaluation of such outcomes.
An in-depth debate on educational evaluation, and on international tests such as LLECE and PISA, is essential vis à vis the post-2015 scenario. The what, how and what for of evaluation has decisive impact on the what, how and what for of teaching and learning, and on the overall way of doing education policy and education.
I am translating this post from the original one in Spanish, in this same blog (Voces críticas de PISA en América Latina). Texts remain in Spanish; I am translating only the descriptions.
Basic information on PISA
PISAis an international test proposed by OECD. It is applied every three years, since 2000, in public and private institutions, to 15-year-old students. It covers three areas: reading, mathematics and science. 10 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have participated in PISA so far: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Mexico, Panama, Perú, Trinidad & Tobago, and Uruguay. They have systematically occupied the last positions in PISA.
PISA 2000: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru.
PISA 2003: Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay.
PISA 2006: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay.
PISA 2009: Argentina Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Trinidad & Tobago, Uruguay.
PISA 2012: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay.
Meeting in Uruguay (14 June). Ministers of education of MERCOSUR (sub-regional grouping created in 1991, integrated by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela, and Associate States: Chile, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Guyana, and Surinam) drafted and sent a letter to Mr. Andreas Schleicher, PISA coordinator, expressing several concerns and the need to "LatinoAmericanize" PISA. Some highlights of the letter:
1. The particularities of Latin America and of its 15-year-olds, including high drop out rates.
2. Discrepancies with the culture of rankings and concern around their public exposure and use.
3. Proposal to include in the tests "situations that are relevant to the life contexts of young people in our region".
4. Need to diversify the software used to apply the tests in digital format, including Free Software.
April 2014
PISA, ¿para qué?¿El Ecuador en PISA?, Rosa María Torres, blog OTRA∃DUCACION
In February 2014, the Ecuadorian government announced its decision to join PISA. This article discusses the importance (or not) of participating in PISA in the case of "developing countries" and in the case of Ecuador specifically. It recommends Ecuador not to participate in PISA. Topics dicussed include:
a) the growing international movement against tests and particularly standardized tests;
b) the growing international concerns around PISA;
c) the enormous weight placed on evaluation in the country, at all levels and in all areas (Ecuador is one of the countries infected by GERM: competition, evaluation, standardized tests, excellence, titles) PISA would exarcerbate such tendencies, which have no relation with the spirit of Sumak Kawsay or Good Living, and which relegate learning; and
d) the fact that Ecuador already participates in a comparative regional evaluation: UNESCO's LLECE, which is closer and is more pertinent to the region than OECD's PISA.
a) the growing international movement against tests and particularly standardized tests;
b) the growing international concerns around PISA;
c) the enormous weight placed on evaluation in the country, at all levels and in all areas (Ecuador is one of the countries infected by GERM: competition, evaluation, standardized tests, excellence, titles) PISA would exarcerbate such tendencies, which have no relation with the spirit of Sumak Kawsay or Good Living, and which relegate learning; and
d) the fact that Ecuador already participates in a comparative regional evaluation: UNESCO's LLECE, which is closer and is more pertinent to the region than OECD's PISA.
The article provides also an account of recent criticism to PISA in and out of the region.
August 2014
Statement by the Working Group of CLACSO. No a PISA. Por una evaluación al servicio de una educación emancipadora. (NO to PISA: Towards an evaluation serving an emancipatory education).
In Salvador, Bahía, Brazil (11-12 August, 2014), at a CLACSO Working Group meeting (LatinAmerican Council of Social Sciences) “Education Policies and Right to Education in Latin America and the Caribbean", a large group of intellectuals linked to CLACSO expressed their opposition to PISA. They highlighted seven points:
a)The assumption that good education is the one that confirms the acquisition by students of knowledge that is presumably universal, objective and apolitical, and that is measured by a Ministry of Education.October 2014
b) The alledged identity between the act of measuring and its capacity to reflect the learning processes and their improvement.
c) PISA's alledged condition of being a unique and infallible measurement instrument.
d) The relationship between the instrument and teachers' working conditions, inasmuch as it imposes orientations and incentives.
e) The impact of this correct-answer pedagogy on the subjectivity of teachers, students and families who live in constant pressure vis à vis the outcomes.
f) The mercantilization implied in an instrument that is administered globally.
g) The association between the application of the tests and the evaluation of the quality of education, a concept that is not universal.
One of the points raised at the Encuentro Nacional "Más y Mejor Educación para Todos: Desafíos para la próxima década", (National Congress "More and Better Education for All: Challenges for the Next Decade"), held in Buenos Aires on 30-31 October, was getting out of PISA. See note of Página/12 (Spanish).
The congress was organized by the two most important teacher unions in Argentina (CTERA and SADOP); two new universities (UMET and UNIPE), and CLACSO. The event was promoted also by Argentina's National Congress.
November 2014
Salir de PISA, Pablo Gentili, Blog Contrapuntos, El País, 11 Nov. 2014.
The article elaborates the arguments behind the proposal of "getting out of PISA" presented at the national congress in Argentina (30-31 October). The proposal goes beyond Argentina and other Latin American countries engaged with PISA. University rankings are revised and questioned, as well as the overall ranking culture applied to education, PISA included. Criticism to PISA is illustrated with cases such as that coming from a group of intellectuals and academics in the US, Canada and other developed countries, the Statement by CLACSO Working Group, and the article by Rosa María Torres in Ecuador.
November 2014
Comunidad Educativa, the community of signatories of the Pronunciamiento Latinoamericano por una Educación para Todos (Latin American Statement on Education for All, containing critical positions on educational evaluation) is discussing the issue and the possibility of a NO to PISA statement.
Related posts in OTRA∃DUCACION (in English)
Stop PISA! | ¡Paren PISA!
Sobre evaluación en educación | On Evaluation in Education
Take the Test!
Un GERMen infecta a los sistemas escolares | How GERM is infecting schools around the world