Understanding PISA and What It Tells Us About Educational Standards in Ireland

This Secretariat paper explores Ireland’s performance in Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) in the past decade and considers the PISA assessment in the context of Ireland’s wider system of educational evaluation. It draws on the work of the Educational Research Centre and, indeed, on that of the OECD on PISA, to examine what PISA can and cannot tell us about student performance and the quality of the Irish education system, as well as the broader implications for policy.