Comparison of Data Mining Classification Algorithms on Educational Data under Different Conditions

Over the last 20 years, since the launch of its flagship study the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has become a behemoth of transnational influence on education policy making. To better understand the evolution of the OECD’s perspective on education and the importance of PISA within the OECD’s overall publications, I analysed over 900 OECD publications on education with a topic modelling approach. The analysis revealed that contrary to popular belief, the OECD is a multi-centric organization with various agendas in education policy making, focusing on economic changes, higher education, management, planning, and budgeting. PISA made up only 12% of the overall text corpus and was therefore far less discussed than expected. This is in sharp contrast to the general impression held, namely that the OECD’s work in education mostly relates to PISA. Therefore, this study reveals that the OECD has a far broader agenda than anticipated. This paper acts as a systematic review of OECD literature to gain insights into its institutional objectives.

During the last decade, in many European countries large investments were made to foster the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in education with the expectation that ICT would make teaching and learning more effective. This would, for example, become evident in scores obtained by students in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA studies show, however, that PISA achievements do not increase with ICT use. The question for research is why high-frequency ICT use tends to be related to lower PISA achievements. To answer this question, the author has looked at PISA results published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as well as at the results of his own analyses of PISA data. While it seems that ICT use as well as PISA achievements are related to cultural capital, the findings are not clear-cut and vary among the three European countries chosen for investigation.

International assessments provide important knowledge about science education and help inform decisions about policies, programmes, and practices in participating countries. In 2006, science was the primary domain for the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), supported by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). Compared to the school curriculum orientation of Trends in International Math and Science Study (TIMSS), PISA provides a perspective that emphasises the application of knowledge to science and technology‐related life situations. The orientation of PISA includes both knowledge and attitudes as these contribute to students’ competencies that are central to scientific literacy. In addition to students’ knowledge and competencies, the 2006 PISA survey gathered data on students’ interest in science, support for scientific enquiry, and responsibility towards resources and environments. The survey used both a non‐contextualised student questionnaire and contextualised questions. The latter is an innovative approach which embedded attitudinal questions at the conclusion of about two‐thirds of the test units. The results presented in this article make connections between students’ attitudes and interests in science and scientific literacy.

In recent years, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has put a considerable focus on improving equity in education outcomes. One key aspect of this has been the advent of its international testing program, PISA--the Programme for International Student Assessment--which measures the skills of 15-year-olds in more than 60 countries around the world. From its outset in 2000, PISA made equity of outcomes as important as the average level of outcomes. PISA results have demonstrated quite clearly that countries don't have to choose between excellence for some and mediocrity for all. Instead, national education systems can produce high levels of achievement with relatively low levels of inequality. Andreas Schleicher, who heads PISA, has given many eloquent talks around the world on this theme. While the rhetoric of students can learn preceded PISA, the realization that some large education systems are consistently achieving that goal has made it impossible for anyone to argue successfully that the price of education excellence must be a high level of inequality. But OECD has gone well beyond PISA in its attention to equality issues. Especially in the last 10 years, equity challenges have been a major feature of OECD education studies and reports. In February, OECD released Equity and Quality in Education: Supporting Disadvantaged Students and Schools, a follow-up to a 2007 report that suggested ways schools and systems could increase equity based on policies and practices in a number of OECD countries. The key contention of the February report is in the following two sentences from its foreword: The evidence shows that equity can go hand-in-hand with quality and that reducing school failure strengthens individuals' and societies' capacities to respond to recession and contribute to economic growth and social well-being. This means that investing in high-quality schooling and equal opportunities for all from the early years to at least the end of upper secondary is the most profitable educational policy, (p. 3) That argument is spelled out in more detail in the first part of the report and then turned into 10 policy recommendations to produce greater equity without threatening quality. These recommendations fall into two areas--system-level policies to support equity and strategies to improve performance in high-need or low-performing schools. In the first category, OECD proposes five steps: 1. Eliminate grade repetition. 2. Avoid early tracking of students (into vocational education or special education). 3. Manage school choice so that it does not lead to greater inequity. 4. Make funding more responsive to differing school needs. 5. Have more high-quality pathways in secondary schooling leading to good outcomes. In terms of working with high-need schools, the organization suggests five more strategies: 1. Strengthen school leadership. 2. Create a positive climate for learning. 3. Keep good teachers in high-need schools. 4. Ensure effective classroom practices. 5. Link closely with parents and communities. These recommendations are hardly radical. Nor should they be, since they're quite firmly grounded in many years of research. Moreover, as the report shows, each is in place in some high-performing systems so they have the sanction of empirical evidence and experience. On the other hand, few education systems have securely embedded all of these features, and quite a few systems actively contradict at least some of them. Virtually every system around the world, whether a district or a nation, could benefit from paying serious attention to the set as a whole. Why don't countries implement these policies and practices if they're known to be effective? There are at least a couple of reasons one could adduce. …

One of the overarching goals of international large-scale assessments (ILSA) is to inform public discourse about the quality of education in different countries. To fulfil this function, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), for example, raises awareness of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) results through different forms of traditional and social media (e.g. press releases and other activities under the slogan PISA Day). Scholars have responded to the rapid growth of ILSA by examining public discourse through newspaper articles, policy documents, and other outlets. However, we know very little about whether and to what extent the general public is actually affected by PISA results. In order to address this gap, this study uses data regarding public trust in education from the 2011 wave of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP). Drawing on survey data from 30 countries and Hierarchical Linear Models (HLM), the study shows that PISA rankings have a significant effect on public perceptions. We find that in high performing countries the general public expresses higher levels of confidence in the education system. We discuss these patterns in the context of growing politicisation of education policy making and the use of ILSA as evidence.

International comparisons of academic achievements in schools have become necessary to make countries competitive in the global economy. The most prominent international and comparative assessments of academic achievements were the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). In 2002, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) was implemented, sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and involving thirty-two countries. The difference between PISA and TIMSS is that PISA emphasized more the usefulness of education in practical situations rather than focusing mainly on curriculum and academic achievement. The results of both studies show low performance of students in many countries, especially some who claim to be industrial and economic leaders.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has recently piloted the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)-based Test for Schools in the USA. In this paper, I contend that by connecting directly with local school boards this new initiative has the potential to further promote the OECD's educational agenda in local policy debates. I begin to develop this argument by providing an overview of the OECD and its work. I then lay out a theoretical framework around global governance and knowledge production within the context of the OECD. Next, I provide a brief overview of the traditional PISA study and compare it to the new PISA-based Test for Schools initiative. This context provides the foundation for a discussion of the ways in which a school-based international assessment can operate as a governance tool, allowing international organizations to have greater influence in the formation and implementation of local educational policies.

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), launched by governments of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1997, aims at assessing some of the key competencies that contribute to the success of 15-year-old individuals, on a regular basis and within an internationally accepted framework. PISA seeks to provide a basis for policy dialogue and for collaboration in defining and implementing educational goals, in innovative ways that reflect judgements about the skills that are relevant to adult life. PISA defines competence as the ability to successfully meet complex demands in varied contexts through the mobilisation of psychosocial resources, including knowledge and skills, motivation, attitudes, emotions, and other social and behavioural components. Measuring and comparing competencies across languages and cultures is a difficult challenge and is being pursued by PISA progressively. PISA focused its first three assessments on literacy skills, defined as the capacity of young adults to access, manage, integrate and evaluate information, to think imaginatively, to hypothesise and discover, and to communicate their thoughts and ideas effectively. The reasoning behind shifting the emphasis from assessing whether students can reproduce what they have learned towards whether they can extrapolate from what they have learned and apply their competencies in novel situations, derives from the nature of knowledge and skills required in modern life. For example, the tasks that can be solved through simple memorisation or with pre-set algorithms are those that are also easiest to digitise, automatise and offshore, and will thus be less relevant in a modern knowledge society. Since there is no overarching cross-national and cross-cultural agreement on what fundamental competencies 15-year-olds should possess, an international assessment such as PISA can only capture a selection of competencies. Moreover, since various methodological constraints limit the nature of competencies that are currently amenable to large scale assessment, PISA cannot capture the entirety of competencies that will make young people successful. However, the findings presented in this article suggest that the competencies that PISA does assess are highly predictive for the future success of students. In addition, PISA provides policy makers and practitioners with useful tools to improve quality, equity and efficiency in education, by revealing some common characteristics of students, schools and education systems that do well. In a modern world, comparative assessments are an essential tool for educational improvement and research shows that the existence of standardised assessments and examinations is one of the most powerful predictors for the success of an education system. That is not hard to understand, because without such assessments, all students, schools and education systems look the same, it is impossible for teachers and school administrators to detect institutional and systemic strengths and weaknesses, and to support and intervene where expectations are not met. Without reliable and comparable information on learning outcomes, teachers and governments alike rely on input-based incentives and policies that are all too often mirrored in large quality variation between schools as well as a strong dependency between learning success and the socio-economic context of students and schools. Last but not least, it is important to keep in mind that the absence of the reading, mathematical and scientific competencies measured by PISA does not automatically imply the presence of all those important competencies that have not been measured.

The research examines the role of using ICT to raise students’ achievement in Italian technical and professional schools. The hypothesis developed in this research is that students who obtain better learning results are those students who use ICT more than those students who are low performers. Data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009 by OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) have been analyzed. The relationship between using ICT at school and students’ digital skills and attitudes has been analyzed by comparing the lowest performers and strong performers in reading literacy in Italian technical and professional schools. Results show that in Italian technical and professional schools, strong performers in reading literacy in PISA 2009 are more capable to do tasks at computer than low performers; however reading online and using ICT have greater positive effects towards achievement among low performers. Key words: ICT, PISA, professional school, reading literacy, technical school.

It is often assumed that schools themselves play an important role in students not completing school. However, the literature is inconsistent on what school characteristics influence school leaving, and identified school effects may be spurious due to the absence, or poor measurement, of appropriate individual-level influences. The importance of schools on school leaving is examined in the Australian context using longitudinal data based on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)'s 2003 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) study, which includes more comprehensive measures of socioeconomic background and student achievement than available previously. The strongest influence on school leaving was student performance in the PISA tests. Although there were sizable differences between schools in the proportion of school leavers, only a small proportion of schools showed significantly higher or lower levels of school leaving when individual-level influences were taken into account. The implications for policies on school leaving are discussed.

Abstract: This research is motivated by the low achievement of scientific literacy in Indonesia in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) study participation held every three years by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This study aims to determine the scientific literacy ability of Class VIII Junior High School students in Tarakan City, which was taken using the Purposive Sampling technique. The data was taken using a test method in the form of a description question. The test given was adopted from the PISA questions published by the National Assessment Program (NAP) published in 2009 and translated into Indonesian. The results showed that the Science Literacy Ability of Class VIII Junior High School Students in Tarakan City was categorized as less with a percentage of 44.04%. At each level, students can only answer questions with levels 1 and 2, while for questions with levels 3 and 4, they are still very lacking. So it was concluded that the scientific literacy skills of class VIII junior high school students in Tarakan City were still lacking. Keywords: scientific literacy, student, PISA

Objective: The relationship between health level (status) and economic level is an important research area in health economics literature, and countries with above-average health status indicators that have healthy economic indicators as well are generally accepted. The aims of the present study were to determine the position of countries based on their health status and economic indicators, to rank the performance of countries with respect to both groups of indicators, to observe the changes in and the relationship between health and economic performance ranking, and to examine the relationship between health and macroeconomic performance scores using correlation analysis. Materials and methods: Multidimensional scaling was used to determine the countries’ position, and the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution method was used to rank the country’s net performance according to health status and economic indicators. The study uses horizontal data for 2016. Economic data were obtained from the International Monetary Fund, and each of the country’s health status indicators was obtained from the World Health Organization and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Health Data Bank. Results: Macroeconomic performance ranking results showed that while Ireland performed best, Turkey performed worst among OECD countries. Health status performance ranking results ranked Japan as first and Turkey as last. Additionally, a positive, moderately significant correlation between macroeconomic and health status indicators was obtained. Conclusion: Currently, especially with aging populations, various problems have arisen in the health status of societies, affecting the general level of health in the society and economic structure. Therefore, health services for the elderly can play a role in improving health status and economic level. Cite this article as: Özsarı H, Boz C. Comparison of Health Status and Macroeconomic Indicators in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Countries Using Multidimensional Scaling and TOPSIS. Journal of Health Science and Profession 2019; 6(3): 545-54.

The paper provides a brief historical background on the formation and development of ecotoxicology as a science, reflects the main modern methods and principles for studying the acute toxicity of xenobiotics for representatives of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems recommended by the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). The classification of acute ecotoxicity of chemicals for land and water test systems is given. Further perspective development of the unit, which will be aimed at expanding ecotoxicological research in accordance with international OECD methods and GLP requirements, has been outlined. Aim. Revealing the main methods and principles recommended by the OECD for determining acute toxicity for biological objects of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and putting these methods and principles into practice of the Scientific Centre. Materials and Methods. The work was based on the implementation of international OECD standards and GLP principles. The OECD public electronic library of methods, particularly section 2 of the Instructions for Testing Chemicals, was used and analysed. Results and Conclusions. International methods for determining the acute toxicity of pollutants for non-target environmental objects were put into practice in the Scientific Centre, such as OECD 201 (Freshwater Alga and Cyanobacteria, Growth Inhibition Test); OECD 202 (Daphnia sp. Acute Immobilisation Test); OECD 203 (Fish, Acute Toxicity Test); OECD 207 (Earthworm, Acute Toxicity Tests); OECD 213 (Honeybees, Acute Oral Toxicity Test); OECD 216 (Soil Microorganisms: Nitrogen Transformation Test); OECD 217 (Soil Microorganisms: Carbon Transformation Test); OECD 223 (Avian Acute Oral Toxicity Test). Systems for the quality and control of ecotoxicological studies have been developed, which made it possible to obtain national and international accreditation for the conduct of the above studies. Further activities of the department will be aimed at expanding ecotoxicological research using international OECD methods and compliance with GLP requirements, which will contribute to the development of ecotoxicological research both in the Scientific Centre and in Ukraine as a whole. Key Words: ecotoxicology, pesticides and agrochemicals, biological test systems, OECD methods, good laboratory practice (GLP).

The main goal and purpose of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is its system monitoring function. PISA was originally designed to inform the educational policy of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member states by reporting on the performance of students at the age when they are about to leave compulsory education. Moreover, and especially, the assessment of learning contexts has become more and more important throughout the cycles of the PISA program. Today, a broad set of context questionnaires are implemented as part of PISA. They collect information on the learning contexts of different stakeholders in education: namely, students, principals, teachers and parents. The underlying idea is to explain differences in the educational outcomes as assessed by the cognitive tests through the information gathered about differences in educational contexts between countries. Context assessment has always been an important part of the PISA program, but with slightly different intentions and content focus in each study and cycle. The shifting of the major domains and the shifts of interest in measures of learning contexts have heavily influenced the respective topics and design of context assessment. Thus, the context questionnaires as assessment instruments of choice have evolved over time; this process is discussed in the present chapter. This chapter elaborates on the organization of context questionnaire and framework development, including the roles and responsibilities of the different expert groups involved. Changes in the assessment of learning context are discussed and, focusing on PISA 2015, the latest developments in the context questionnaires are described, before possible developments for future context assessment in PISA are elaborated upon.

The rise of dubious medical practice and anti-vaccination groups in Malaysia suggests that the public needs to be equipped with the scientific literacy skills to navigate the healthcare landscape. Additionally, the overall result of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009+ for Malaysia suggests that the national scientific literacy levels of 16-year-old Malaysian students to be below the international and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average. Consequently, the Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) was introduced to form part of the national English language evaluation in 2013 to encourage creative and critical thinking. In this editorial piece, I describe a youth-led intervention that may be more effective at increasing scientific literacy to combat pseudoscience in Malaysian youth especially in bridging the education inequality gap in Malaysia.