The unintended outcomes of PISA

This chapter provides the unintended outcomes of PISA. PISA was launched in 2000 and since then, a growing number of countries have taken part in this global beauty contest. One of the reasons for the huge popularity of PISA, particularly with policy-makers, is the key idea that improved educational performance leads to a better skilled workforce and ultimately to better economic prosperity. PISA has fuelled a powerful rhetoric that if public schools are failing the answer must lie in private provision. The next unintended outcome of PISA concerns the relative dismissal and devaluation of contextual and cultural influences within considerations of education reform processes. The next unintended outcome associated with PISA concerns the myopia regarding the pervasive and persistent influence of poverty on educational performance. The final unintended outcome of PISA is arguably the most harmful for the teaching profession.