Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2022): Scotland's results - highlights

Executive Summary

What is PISA?

1. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an assessment of 15 year-olds' skills in mathematics, reading and science. Eighty-one countries and around 690,000 students participated in PISA 2022. The survey was carried out in Scotland between 18 October and 22 December 2022.

2. PISA is a sample survey and the scores presented are estimates. Confidence intervals are presented around mean scores; we can be 95% sure that the true value lies within this range.

3. It is not possible to produce individual country rankings based on the mean score. Significance tests are used to assess the statistical significance of comparisons made and the report shows results divided into those countries whose scores are statistically significantly higher than, similar to or lower than Scotland (with a confidence level of 95%).

The Survey in Scotland

Table 1.1

• Participating schools - 117 schools
• Participating students - 3,257
• School response rate - 96.4%
• Student response rate - 79.4%

4. In total, 117 secondary schools participated in the survey, representing a school response rate of 96.4 per cent; exceeding the OECD's minimum standard of 85 per cent. 3,257 students took part giving a weighted student participation rate of 79.4 per cent, slightly below the student participation technical standard of 80 per cent. Therefore Scotland completed a student level non-response bias analysis (NRBA); from this the OECD concluded that more than minimal bias was most likely introduced but that the results were comparable to previous cycles.

5. Lower student participation proved to be an issue internationally in this post-Covid-19 survey. Twelve other countries/economies did not meet the school and/or student technical standard response rates.

6. The PISA survey also includes background questionnaires. Pupils are asked about their motivations for study, attitudes to school, beliefs about maths, studying and their socio-economic background. Headteachers are asked about the challenges facing their schools, organisation and factors that they believe affect their students' performance.

7. For more detailed methodological background please see Annex 1 and the PISA 2022: Study Administration in Scotland Report and NRBA at PISA Research - NFER

Learning during Covid

PISA 2022 was conducted during or immediately following the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings provide important context to the learning experiences of this cohort of students prior to the PISA assessments.

8. In Scotland, assessments took place in Autumn 2022, around 7 months after in-school Covid restrictions were lifted. Students will have been aged between 13 and 14 during the periods of school building closures, and in the early years of high school education.

9. PISA 2022 took the opportunity to examine how education systems, schools, teachers and students responded to Covid and school building closures through new questions in the student and headteacher questionnaires. The responses show a mixed picture. The majority of students in Scotland agreed that their teachers were well prepared to provide instruction remotely and were available when they needed help. Students in Scotland were also less likely than the OECD average to experience problems accessing the internet, digital devices, and learning materials. However, students in Scotland were less likely than the OECD average to agree that they were prepared for learning on their own and that that they had felt motivated to learn.

10. The majority of Scottish students felt that they learnt less at home than they would have done at school. However, the findings also show evidence of resilience, with students reporting higher life satisfaction and being more likely to report a sense of belonging in school than in PISA 2018.

Overall performance

Scotland's overall performance in 2022 was lower than in 2018 in mathematics and reading, and similar in science. The OECD average for mathematics and reading also fell, with 31 OECD countries achieving a lower score in mathematics than in 2018.

11. Scotland's scores in the 2022 PISA assessments were above the OECD average in reading and similar to the OECD average in mathematics and science. This was also the case in the PISA 2018 assessments.

12. Scotland's relative performance, when measured by the number of comparator countries that were above and below Scotland, stayed similar in reading and mathematics compared to PISA 2018, and declined in science.

13. The proportion of pupils performing at the highest levels of achievement ("Level 5 and above") was higher in Scotland than the OECD average in reading, and similar in maths and science. The proportion of pupils performing at the lowest levels of achievement ("below Level 2") was lower in Scotland than the OECD average in reading, and similar in maths and science. This is the same as in the PISA 2018 assessments.

14. Performance among boys was higher than among girls in mathematics; girls outperformed boys in reading; while scores in science were similar between boys and girls.

15. PISA measures the strength of the relationship between social background and performance by the share of variation in scores explained by the index of Economic, Social and Cultural Status (ESCS). In mathematics the share of variation was higher in 2022 than in 2018, but remained similar to the OECD average, therefore the connection between mathematics performance and social background in Scotland is stronger than before. For reading and science, the variation explained by social background was similar to 2018.

Scotland's performance in mathematics

Scotland's mean score in mathematics in 2022 was similar to the OECD average and was lower than all previous PISA cycles (2003-2018).

16. In 2022 in Scotland, performance among boys was higher than among girls in mathematics. This was also the case in 2006, 2009, 2012, 2018 but not in 2015 where their performance was similar.

17. Achievement of Level 2 is considered by OECD to be the baseline at which students begin to demonstrate the knowledge and skill to enable them to participate actively in life situations related to maths. In 2022, 30.7 per cent of students in Scotland performed below PISA Level 2 in mathematics. This was similar to the OECD average (31.1 percent). This proportion was higher in Scotland in 2022 than in 2018, 2015, 2012, 2009 and 2006.

18. In 2022, 7.7 per cent of students in Scotland performed at PISA Level 5 or better in mathematics, which was similar to the OECD average (8.7 per cent). This proportion was lower in Scotland in 2022 than it was in 2018, 2012, 2009 and 2006 but was similar to 2015.

19. A greater proportion of girls (33.3 per cent) than boys (28.3 per cent) performed below Level 2 in Mathematics. 9.4 per cent of boys performed at PISA Level 5 or better in mathematics, which was higher than the proportion of girls (6.1 per cent).

20. The strength of the relationship between students' background and mathematics test scores (share of variation) in 2022 was almost double what it was in 2018 (15.9 per cent compared to 7.9 per cent). It was also higher than in 2015 (11.1 per cent) but was similar to 2006, 2009 and 2012.

Scotland's performance in reading

Scotland's mean score in reading in 2022 was higher than the OECD average. It was similar to 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015 and lower than 2000, 2003 and 2018.

21. In 2022 in Scotland, performance among girls was higher than among boys in reading. This was also the case in all previous PISA cycles.

22. Achievement of PISA Level 2 is considered by OECD to be the baseline at which students begin to demonstrate sufficient skill to enable them to participate actively in life situations involving reading. In 2022, 20.3 per cent of students in Scotland performed below PISA Level 2 in reading, which was lower than the OECD average (26.3 per cent). This proportion was higher than in 2018 (15.5 per cent) and 2012 and similar to 2015, 2009 and 2006.

23. In 2022, 9.6 per cent of students in Scotland performed at PISA level 5 or better in reading (defined by the OECD as top performers). This was higher than the OECD average (7.2 per cent). This proportion was higher in Scotland in 2022 than in 2015 (6.4 per cent) but similar to 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2018.

24. A greater proportion of boys (23.2 per cent) than girls (17.3 per cent) performed below Level 2 in reading. The proportion of girls and boys performing at PISA Level 5 or better in reading was similar (10.8 per cent of girls and 8.4 per cent of boys).

25. The strength of the relationship (share of variation) between students' background and reading test scores in 2022 was similar to 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015 and 2018. For more information on ESCS please see Annex 3.

Scotland's performance in science

Scotland's mean score in science in 2022 was similar to the OECD average. Scotland's mean score was similar to 2018, but lower than PISA cycles 2006-2015 .

26. In 2022 in Scotland, girls and boys had a similar performance in science. This was also the case in all previous PISA cycles.

27. Achievement of Level 2 is considered by the OECD to be the baseline at which students begin to demonstrate the knowledge and skill to enable them to participate actively in life situations related to science. In 2022, 24.0 per cent of students in Scotland performed below PISA Level 2 in science. This was similar to the OECD average (24.5 per cent). This proportion was similar to 2018 but higher than 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015.

28. In 2022, 6.8 per cent of students in Scotland performed at PISA Level 5 or better in science (defined by the OECD as top performers), which was similar to the OECD average (7.5 per cent). This was similar to 2018, 2015 and 2012 but lower than 2009 and 2006.

29. In 2022 the proportion of girls and boys performing below PISA Level 2 in science was similar (23.9 per cent of girls and 24.1 per cent of boys). The proportion performing at PISA Level 5 or better was also similar (6.2 per cent of girls and 7.4 per cent of boys).

30. The strength of the relationship between students' background and science test scores in 2022 was similar to 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015 and 2018. For more information on ESCS please see Annex 3.

How students view themselves and their school

In PISA 2022, students in Scotland were more likely than in PISA 2018 to agree that they feel like they belong at school, and less likely to report experience bullying acts. However, they were more likely than in 2018 to report having skipped a day of school recently.

31. Two-thirds of students (67 per cent) feel like they belong at their school. This is below the OECD average (74.6 per cent), but is higher than for students in Scotland in PISA 2018 (64.7 per cent).

32. Students reported a higher life satisfaction in PISA 2022 (an average of 6.48 on a scale of 1-10) than in PISA 2018 (6.25). However, this was below the OECD average of 6.75.

33. Students in Scotland were less than likely than in PISA 2018 to report that they experienced frequent bullying acts, including being made fun of, being left out of things, and being hit or pushed around by other students. However, a higher proportion of students in Scotland reported experiencing a bullying act on at least a weekly basis (10.6 per cent) than the OECD average (9.4 per cent).

34. Students in Scotland were more likely to say that they had skipped at least a whole day of school in the last two weeks (21.9 per cent) compared to PISA 2018 (16.8 per cent), and this was higher than the OECD average (14.6 per cent). However, a similar proportion to PISA 2018 reported skipping some classes.

35. Students in Scotland spent a similar amount of time using digital resources for learning activities and leisure compared to the OECD average. However, students in Scotland were more likely to feel nervous when they didn't have their digital devices near them (49.7 per cent).