Highlights from PISA 2006: Performance of U.S. 15-Year-Old Students in Science and Mathematics Literacy in an International Context. NCES 2008-016

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a system of international assessments administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that measures 15-year-olds' performance in reading literacy, mathematics literacy, and science literacy every 3 years. This report focuses on the performance of U.S. students in the major subject area of science literacy as assessed in PISA 2006. Achievement in the minor subject area of mathematics literacy in 2006 is also presented. The United States had greater percentages of students at or below the lowest level of achievement, level 1, than the OECD average percentages on the combined science literacy scale. The United States also had lower percentages of students at levels 3 and 4 than the OECD average percentages. The percentages of U.S. students performing at levels 2, 5, and 6 were not measurably different from the OECD averages. In 2006, the average U.S. score in mathematics literacy was 474 on a scale from 0 to 1,000, lower than the OECD average score of 498. U.S. scores are compared to those achieved in other OECD jurisdictions and analyzed by percentile, sex, and race/ethnicity. The following are appended: (1) Sample Science Items from PISA 2006; (2) Technical Notes; (3) Reference Tables; and (4) PISA 2006 Expert Panelists. (Contains 15 tables, 7 figures, 6 exhibits, and 13 footnotes.)