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Pisa : Frequently Answered Criticisms, Ray Adams

Prof Ray Adams

Studies such as PISA that attempt to compare outcomes across educational systems are expensive and difficult to implement. Further, the results of such studies are routinely criticized by educational commentators - particularly when the results are not consistent with their preconceived ideas about the relative merits and efficiencies of various educational practices and systems. This chapter discusses what is done to ameliorate the threats to the validity of PISA in five areas often targeted by commentators and reviewers as sources of invalidity in international comparisons. The five areas discussed are: (1) sampling - are the samples of students who undertake …