Prerelease of OECD data on student achievement

Finland once again takes the number one spot in OECD\u27s three-yearly PISA test of the abilities of a sample of 15-year old secondary school students, followed by Hong Kong (China) and Canada, according to advance details of results that will be published in full next week. The report shows that Australia performs very well overall, but its top group performs better relative to other nations than its bottom group of achievers. The PISA survey, based on tests carried out in 2006 in 57 countries that together account for nearly 90 per cent of world GDP, is the most comprehensive and rigorous international yardstick of secondary school students\u27 attainments. After focusing in 2000 on reading skills and in 2003 on mathematics, PISA 2006 tested students on how much they knew about science and their ability to use scientific knowledge and understanding to identify and address questions and resolve problems in daily life

PISA 2006: Science competencies for tomorrow's world

This report presents the results from the most recent PISA survey, which focused on science and also assessed mathematics and reading. It explores not only how well students perform, but also their interests in science and their awareness of the opportunities that scientific competencies bring as well as the environment that schools offer for science learning. It places the performance of students, schools and countries in the context of their social background and identifies important educational policies and practices that are associated with educational success. By showing that some countries succeed in providing both high quality education and equitable learning outcomes, PISA sets ambitious goals for others. A detailed executive summary and selected charts are available via the link below

Communicating Treatment Risk Reduction to People With Low Numeracy Skills: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

Objectives. We sought to address denominator neglect (i.e. the focus on the number of treated and nontreated patients who died, without sufficiently considering the overall numbers of patients) in estimates of treatment risk reduction, and analyzed whether icon arrays aid comprehension