PISA Under Examination: Opening of the Symposium

The opening of the symposium was by a panel with Miguel Pereyra, Robert Cowan, Guadalupe Gonzalez Tano, Pilar Teresa Diaz, and German Gonzalez.

Guadalupe Gonzales Tano spoke of:

• a clear imbalance in education
• cautions about these surveys
• how surveys such as PISA show places to improve within an education system
• the benchmarks they provide

Pilar Teresa Diaz spoke of:

• PISA as an international phenomenon
• how PISA highlights the main problems of society and education
• how PISA diagnoses global problems
• the sensitivity needed with these surveys
• the controversy of PISA, as PISA leaves nobody indifferent
• the fundamental problems in comparative education
• how PISA promotes improvement in education
• how PISA needs to encourage in-depth analysis
• the positive transformation of education
• how PISA points out the problems we face

German Gonzalez spoke of:

• PISA as a popular phenomenon
• his role as director of the museum of education
• Plato's views on education: the greatest beauty of body and soul
• how today's world is interested in other aspects of education, as in the economic side
• how PISA needs people with know-how

Miguel Pereyra spoke of:

• the founding of CESE in London (1961)
• the symposium, which focuses on PISA, the most complete international assessment thus far
• the media storm following the release of PISA scores
• the OECD creating the best form of international comparison
• how perhaps PISA has become the OECD's "unwanted child"
• the International Education Statistics, InES, which reoriented the efficiency of international indicators in 1986
• PISA's birth in 1986
• how PISA is often misinterpreted
• the difficulty in actual comparison
• how PISA is more than a ranking, it is a tool for the governance of education, and someday will be an international tool for world governance
• the symposium would highlight the problems of PISA and the puzzle that PISA represents
• the problematic scope of PISA -- it illustrates the systems that aren't working
• the media's interpretation of PISA as an X-Ray or snapshot of schools and education systems
• PISA's definition of "literacy," not concerned with didactics
• the "horserace" that PISA has generated
• how PISA measures not only performance, but also school functions
• how PISA's measurement of education is problematic: it comes with rich data and a reservoir of empirical data
• how PISA goes far beyond a test of economic or educational achievement
• how PISA permeates everything