PISA for Development: One World, One Measure for Learning?

Technical work has started on PISA for Development, the three year project, conceived as a pilot, which aims to “enhance” PISA survey instruments to make them more relevant for “developing countries” whilst at the same time producing scores on the same scales as the “main” PISA assessment. The ambitions behind PISA for Development raise important questions. How feasible and desirable is it to measure learning across the world along one set of scales? What implications does a single internationally recognised measure have for school curricula? How will spill-over generate capacity to measure and improve education quality at the national level?