PISA Called Inappropriate for U.S. Benchmarking

As state leaders and education advocates weigh evaluating U.S. students using international benchmarks, a new report argues that one prominent test, PISA, is flawed and may not be appropriate for judging American schools on global standards.

The author, Tom Loveless, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, also contends that questions asked on the Program for International Student Assessment surveys of students’ beliefs and attitudes about science reflect an ideological bias, which undermines the test’s credibility.

He cites an example from one PISA questionnaire, which seeks to gauge “a sense of students’ responsibility for sustainable development,” and asks test-takers if they agree with certain statements, such as “having laws that protect the...