The PISA for Schools project provides a digital assessment designed to help school leaders evaluate 15-year-olds' critical thinking skills and their ability to apply knowledge in real-world contexts.
PISA for Schools
PISA for Schools project provides school-level estimate of performance and information about the learning environment and students’ attitudes gathered from student questionnaires.
About
Overview
Objective
The PISA for Schools project contributes to improving student learning and well-being by empowering educators through global connections and international benchmarking based on items that measure the same competences as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA is the world’s largest comparative education survey, presently conducting its ninth cycle (PISA 2025) in more than 90 countries and economies worldwide.
Assessment process
The test is conducted on computers and includes questions that assess critical thinking, problem solving, and the application of knowledge in real-world contexts.
The test lasts two hours and includes three main domains:
Students also complete a background questionnaire that collects information on their perceptions of their school and home environments, including their sense of belonging, safety, family support, and time spent on homework. It also assesses student engagement through factors like teacher relationships, absenteeism and growth mindset, as well as digital device usage for learning and leisure. Additionally, it measures overall life satisfaction, including their motivation, peer relationships and satisfaction with their learning environment.
Outcomes and key metrics
Schools receive valuable materials designed to support their continued growth and development.
School Report
The School Report aims to support school improvement efforts and international benchmarking. Some samples of the report are available in English, Spanish, German, and Portuguese, as well as its Readers Guide is available here, providing an overview of how to interpret and use the results from the school report.
Data
The rich PISA for Schools data is de-identified and is used by the OECD for research and development purposes, strictly in accordance with data protection regulations and solely to support education improvement efforts.
Research papers
PISA for Schools data has already been used to support PISA. Below is a sample of the research led by the PISA for Schools team, frequently in collaboration with partners and researchers worldwide:
- PISA-Based Test for Schools: International Linking Study 2020
- AI scoring for international large-scale assessments using a deep learning model and multilingual data
- Towards more diverse and flexible international large-scale assessments
Why participate?
Benefits for schools and education systems
Schools commonly report these benefits from participating in PISA for Schools.
Global benchmarking and comparison
Data-driven insights for school improvement
Focus on student well-being and equity
Collaboration and networking
How does PISA for Schools help drive improvement?
To achieve its mission of improving learning outcomes while supporting schools and systems engaged in international benchmarking, the PISA for Schools project is implemented through three main strategies:
Implementation of PISA for Schools test
Support to PISA research and innovation work
Post assessment and capacity building workshops
*Innovative domains (PISA RDI Programme | OECD) from past PISA cycles, such as Creative Thinking (PISA 2022) (PISA 2022 Creative Thinking | OECD), problem solving (PISA 2012) (PISA 2012 Creative Problem Solving | OECD), and Financial Literacy (PISA 2015+) (PISA 2015 Results (Volume IV) | OECD), could be included in PISA for Schools for interested participants. In 2022, the PISA Global Crises Module (A tool to capture learning experiences during COVID-19 | OECD) helped schools assess students’ experiences during the pandemic but was retired in 2023 and replaced by PISA 2018 Global Competence items (PISA 2018 Global Competence | OECD) to explore students' perspectives on an increasingly connected world.
Implementation and support : Test Providers (TP), formerly known as National Service Providers (NSPs)
PISA for Schools collaborates with leading assessment providers to ensure the highest standards in test delivery. The Test Provider (TP) is the main technical counterpart of the OECD team in the implementation of PISA for Schools in any school in the country. The TP is expected to play a fundamental role as schools or systems participate in the PISA for Schools.
Key Responsibilities
Promote the PISA for Schools project within the country and engage key stakeholders.
Collaborate closely with the OECD and participate in weekly meetings to ensure smooth implementation.
Recruit and liaise with participating schools, fostering strong relationships with schools and key partners.
Appoint and support school coordinators, ensuring each school designates a coordinator to manage test preparation.
Oversee national adaptation, including the translation of test materials and documentation.
Prepare enrolment data, ensuring accurate collection of school, student and staff information.
Manage test scheduling and coordinating test dates and ensuring smooth test delivery.
Recruit and train marking teams, with OECD support, for coding open-ended responses.
Coordinate the reporting process, ensuring individual school reports are delivered to participating schools.
International Platform Provider (IPP)
The International Platform Provider (IPP) closely work with the Test Providers (TP) and the OECD to ensure the successful implementation of PISA for Schools.
The main task of IPP is providing a digital platform for delivering the test internationally including the preparation of administration in new countries and continuous administration in existing countries. Some responsibilities linked to this task are:
Provide manuals for TP operations.
Author PISA for Schools materials on the platform.
Design and develop the testing window, including all checks for delivery capability.
Train school coordinators and test administrators, and perform equipment checks at school in coordination with TP.
Deliver the test in collaboration with the TP.
Conduct data checks and validation.
Generate School Reports.
Post-Implementation Report
As part of the agreement between the Test Provider and the OECD, following the implementation of PISA for Schools in each country, the TP should produce a Post-Implementation Report describing the implementation process
Guidelines on the use of the PISA for Schools Data
The Guidelines on the Use of the PISA for Schools Data (Insert Link) outlines ethical considerations, emphasising responsible data handling, confidentiality, and appropriate reporting practices.
Who can join PISA for Schools?
Eligibility criteria
Age requirement: Examinees are between 15 years and 3 months and 16 years and 2 months of age at the first date of testing, aligning with the methodology used in the main PISA study.
School participation: Schools with students in the target population can participate. The minimum number of students to have a school report is 42; however, upon request by the Test Provider, the OECD will adjudicate the eligibility of the school report generation based on various factors, such as reliability and re-identifiability of the data.
These criteria help maintain the reliability and comparability of the assessment results.
Current availability
PISA for Schools have benefitted students from:
The test is available in the following languages*:
*The test is available in multiple languages on demand, with options to expand as needed. If your desired language is not available, let us know. We are here to support you.
Timeline and costs
Timeline
The initial implementation of the PISA for Schools project takes about six months from the signing of the agreement to the test administration. During this period, activities include translating and adapting the assessment, sampling schools (if needed), recruiting schools, and training administrators.
After the test is administered, data analysis and report delivery take approximately four months. In total, the process from preparation to report delivery takes about ten months. Once the first testing cycle is complete, the assessment can be provided on demand with a shorter implementation timeline.
Costs
The costs of implementing PISA for Schools consist of two main components: international and national costsInternational costs involve a payment via a Voluntary Contribution (VC) to the OECD’s PISA Programme of Work and Budget. This VC is calculated to recover the costs of implementing the project at the OECD and providing the PISA for Schools testing platform.
National costs include local costs associated with delivery of PISA for Schools, such as technical support, logistics for test administration, marking of open-ended questions, among other tasks performed by the Test Provider (TP). Schools and education systems typically implement the PISA for Schools through a bilateral contract between the schools or systems and the TP.
Quotes for international costs will be provided once the scope of the project is outlined between the OECD and interested schools and systems.
Case Studies
PISA for Schools is committed to expanding the impact of our community. As part of this effort, we are developing a case studies project in collaboration with the Oxford Policy Engagement Network (OPEN) Fellowship. This initiative explores how schools are using PISA for Schools data to drive school improvement and maximise the benefits of participation.
If your school has participated in PISA for Schools and you would like to share your experience, we would love to hear from you. Please fill out this short survey to help us learn more about your case: PISA for Schools Case Study Submission Form
FAQ
PISA is an international study that was launched by the OECD in 1997, first administered in 2000 and now covers over 80 countries. Every 4 years the PISA survey provides comparative data on 15-year-olds’ performance in reading, mathematics, and science. In addition, each cycle explores a distinct “innovative domain” such as Creative Thinking (PISA 2022) and Learning in the Digital World (PISA 2025) , and an “optional domain” such as Financial Literacy (2015 to 2022, 2029) or Foreign Languages (English in PISA 2025). The results have informed education policy discussions at the national and global level since its inception.
Given our global, knowledge-based economy, it has become more important than ever before to compare students not only to local or national standards, but also to the performance of the world’s top-performing school systems. There has been growing interest in comparing student performance to international benchmarks, both as a gauge of how prepared students are to participate in a globalised society and as a means of setting targets above and beyond basic proficiency levels or local expectations.
- The main PISA study always takes priority in countries that participate in PISA and in which the PISA-based Test for Schools is made available. The OECD will work with the PISA national centre to limit interference with school recruitment, and minimize overlap between schools taking the PBTS and those sampled for the field trial or main data collection of PISA (and/or other international or local assessments, as needed within the context where the PFS-participating schools are inserted), for example by defining specific periods during which the PBTS should not be administered.
- The PBTS is not and cannot be used as an alternative to the main PISA study. The PBTS is designed to deliver school-level results which can, under certain conditions, be aggregated to provide group-level results (e.g., for school networks, municipalities, or other sub-national jurisdictions). However, for those countries in which sub-national jurisdictions already participate in PISA and receive jurisdiction-level results through extended oversampling, the PBTS should not be used as an alternative. Furthermore, as it is built to fit schools and smaller systems, PBTS assessment design aims to focus on a narrower range of assessment constructs than a given PISA cycle, this acting as a complement to PISA and never as a replacement.
The OECD accredits a Service Provider (SPs) for the administration of PISA-based Test for Schools in each country who adhere to the provisions set out in the Accreditation Agreement, the OECD Technical Report and the PISA for Schools General Guidelines.
The OECD provides training to SPs prior to the administration of the PBTS, carries out quality control checks on the data collected and conducts data analysis for each school. The OECD reserves the right to withhold its approval of any school report and the use of the OECD logo if data quality standards are not met.
Schools participating in the PISA for Schools project receive a comprehensive report in electronic format detailing their school’s performance measured against national PISA results from their own country and the average of the OECD Member countries. Other meaningful benchmarks (e.g. the EU-27 average of European Union countries, or the DACH average of German-speaking countries) can also be added upon discussion.
Schools are encouraged to share and discuss their results with teachers, staff, students and parents to foster deeper understanding of the overall performance of their school as a basis for future action.
The PISA-based Test for Schools is a school-level assessment. Aggregate results for school networks may only be reported in addition to individual school-level reporting. This helps ensure that the assessment supports school-improvement discussions at the school level, with the school at the centre of the process. School networks may request to include specific sub-populations or socio-economic groups for which they wish to collect specific information. Such requests will be discussed with the accredited National Service Provider(s) in each country and agreed with the OECD on a case-by-case basis.
The results of the assessment, for individual schools or school networks, should not be used for marketing or commercial purposes by the schools themselves, by third parties or by contractors.
To be eligible to receive a school report, schools have to have tested a minimum number of 42 eligible students (i.e., those who are aged between 15 years and 3 completed months to 16 years and 2 completed months at the time of testing). To ensure that the minimum number of 42 students per school is reached, it is recommended to test at least 55 students, assuming a participation rate of 80%.
For prospective participants are two main components in the overall cost of participation, as follows:
- the international participation costs, paid to the OECD that assure cost-recovery for the PFS team and fund the provision of the PBTS testing platform, and
- the local costs associated with administering the PBTS (e.g., promotion, sign up, test delivery, coding open-ended responses) which will vary in each country and are incurred by the SP.
For individual schools or school networks, the costs for participation can be established by the accredited SP. In those jurisdictions in which the SP is a government agency, participation is very often free for schools.
For more details regarding costs, please contact the OECD PISA for Schools team at pisaforschools@oecd.org.
The PISA for Schools project helps schools measure, explore and act:
- Measure students’ learning outcomes in mathematics, science and reading, as well as their social and emotional skills and well-being. How well they can extrapolate that knowledge and skills and apply them in novel contexts.
- Explore: Empower school leaders and teachers by providing them with data about their students’ performance, learning environment, socioeconomic background, and motivation for learning.
- Act: Provide global peer-learning opportunities among teachers and school leaders as they apply their insights from targeted data in their efforts to improve student learning and well-being in their school.
While PISA is intended to deliver national level results, the PISA-based Test for Schools is designed to deliver school-level results for school improvement and benchmarking purposes. Because both assessments are based on the same framework, the results are comparable, meaning that individual schools benchmark their performance with that of national education systems from around the world. Like PISA, PBTS assesses the extent to which 15-year-old students near the end of compulsory education have acquired the knowledge and skills that are essential for full participation in modern societies.
School leaders and teachers have reported using results to:
- Benchmark their performance in a global setting. Schools are using the results to set goals against the best school systems worldwide and to create a greater sense of urgency to push for higher levels of achievement.
- Better understand the challenges faced by low-performing students.
- Create peer-learning communities and networks with other schools and teachers.
Since 2019, the PISA-based Test for Schools is provided as a digital assessment through an International Platform Provider (IPP). The OECD accredits a Service Provider (SP) for the implementation of the assessment. Under rigorous technical oversight from the OECD, the accredited SP administers the assessment to schools using the digital platform run by the IPP.
The project's IPP is a software company that specialises in large scale implementations for global, national, and regional implementations of digital testing. It is responsible for developing digital solutions for the delivery of the assessment as well as the analysis and reporting of results to schools and works in close collaboration with the OECD and the SPs in each country.
Students respond to approximately two hours of test questions in reading, mathematics and science and answer a 30-minute student questionnaire. The testing experience for a student lasts approximately three to three-and-a-half hours, including instructions and break periods.
Once the validation study in a given country is complete, the SP can schedule delivery of the PBTS during a defined ‘test window’ of its choice, in agreement with the OECD.
Notwithstanding the above, the PBTS cannot be offered during the period in which the main PISA study conducts its main data collection, which happens every 4 years in each participating country.
The PISA-based Test for Schools and its results are designed to provide schools with a diagnostic tool to foster reflection, peer-learning and action. They are not meant to be interpreted or used as school rankings or for “league tables”. Furthermore, the PBTS does not provide student-level performance reporting and cannot be used to rank student performance.
