IN-SCHOOL RESULTS

Educational attainment at age 15

• On average across PISA-D countries, only 43% of all 15-year-olds were enrolled in at least grade 7 by age 15 and were eligible to sit the PISA-D test, compared to the OECD average of 89%.
• The percentage of students who reported having repeated a grade at least once ranged from 18% in Ecuador to 50% in Senegal – higher percentages than across OECD countries (12%), on average.

Students’ performance in reading

• About 23% of students across PISA-D countries achieved the minimum level of proficiency in reading, compared with the OECD average of 80%.
• While most students in the PISA-D countries scored at the lower levels of proficiency, 7% of 15-year-olds in PISA-D countries, on average, demonstrated high levels of knowledge and skills in reading, meaning that they scored at or above Level 3 – the typical level of proficiency among 15-year-old students in OECD countries.

Students’ performance in mathematics

• About 12% of students across PISA-D countries achieved the minimum level of proficiency in mathematics, compared with the OECD average of 77%.
• In all PISA-D countries, less than 10% of students attained the OECD average PISA 2015 mathematics score.

Students’ performance in science

• About 18% of students across PISA-D countries achieved the minimum level of proficiency (Level 2) in science, compared with the OECD average of 79%.

Variations in student performance

• Gender gap
  • Girls tended to outperform boys in reading (except in Senegal, where boys and girls performed similarly in reading), but the gender gap in reading performance was often less pronounced across PISA-D countries than in OECD countries.
  • Most PISA-D countries had a gender gap in mathematics performance in favor of boys (except Cambodia and Zambia, where boys and girls performed similarly in mathematics).
  • There was a small gender gap in science performance only in Cambodia (in favor of girls), and in Ecuador and Honduras (in favor of boys).
• In all PISA-D countries, students attending urban schools outperformed students in rural schools in reading, with an average performance difference of 42 score points, the equivalent of more than a year of schooling.
• The mean performance of students at different levels of socio-economic status showed that students in PISA-D countries tended to do worse than students across OECD countries with similar socio-economic resources. In particular, the most advantaged students in PISA-D countries systematically performed below similarly advantaged students in OECD countries.

Health, well-being, and attitudes towards school and learning

• Across PISA-D countries, around 89% of students, on average, reported that they are satisfied with their life; 84% reported that they are in good health.
• In all PISA-D countries except Zambia, girls were more likely than boys to report feeling sad or depressed at least once a week; on average, 46% of girls reported so, compared to 33% of boys.
• Most of the students assessed in PISA-D countries hold positive views about school and what they have learned. On average, 96% of students reported that they believe that trying hard at school is important. 

OUT-OF-SCHOOL RESULTS

Educational attainment and zones of exclusion

• On average, across the 5 participating countries, most of the target youth had dropped out of school at the end of the primary cycle (24%) or while in secondary education (20%), or were still in school but in Grade 6 or below (22%).
• Gender
  • In Panama and Paraguay, about as many 14-to-16-year-old boys as girls were out of school.
  • In Honduras and Senegal, the number of boys who were not in school exceeded the number of girls by more than 10 percentage points.
  • In Guatemala, the number of girls who were not in school exceeded the number of boys by more than 10 percentage points.
  • The percentage of boys is generally higher than that of girls among the group that is still in school but below Grade 6, except in Panama and Senegal.
  • The percentage of girls is generally higher than that of boys among leavers of primary school, except in Senegal.
• Amongst the dropouts in the out-of-school population, the vast majority reported that they had repeated a grade at least once before dropping out of school, with percentages ranging from 86% in Panama and Honduras to almost 100% in Senegal. Grade repetition, especially in early grades, tends to be the strongest predictor of dropout. Moreover, PISA results through the years have shown that grade repetition is an expensive policy that does not improve student achievement and fails to keep students in school, affecting their attainment levels.

Performance in reading amongst out-of-school youth

• In all five participating countries, the 15-year-old students enrolled in the PISA target grades outperformed the youth included in the PISA-D out-of-school assessment. On average across the five participating countries, less than 2% of out-of-school youth achieved Level 2 in reading, compared to more than 27% of in-school youth, on average across all the PISA-D countries.
• The share of out-of-school youth achieving above Level 2 in reading does not vary much between countries, ranging from none in Senegal to just over 4% in Panama.

Performance in mathematics amongst out-of-school youth

• Across the five participating countries, a little over 1% of out-of-school youth achieved Level 2 in mathematics, compared to more than 12% of in-school youth, on average.
• The share of out-of-school youth who attained above Level 2 in mathematics does not vary much between countries, ranging from 0.3% in Guatemala and Senegal to a little over 3% in Honduras.
• In all five participating countries, the 15-year-old students enrolled in the PISA target grades outperformed out-of-school youth in mathematics.

Variation in performance amongst out-of-school youth

• Gender gap
  • In the in-school PISA-D and PISA tests, more generally, gender gaps in performance were observed in both reading (in favor of girls) and mathematics (in favor of boys).
  • But in the PISA-D out-of-school results, there were no significant gender differences in achievement in either of the two domains.
• SES
  • The performance of respondents and students at different levels of socio-economic status showed that out-of-school respondents tended to score lower than the in-school students in the PISA-D countries with similar socio-economic resources. In particular, the most advantaged out-of-school respondents performed systematically below similarly advantaged students in the in-school sample in both reading and mathematics.
  • While the range of student performance across the different levels of socio-economic status is smaller in PISA-D countries than across OECD countries, on average, socio-economic status still has a considerable impact on performance in PISA-D countries.
  • Socio-economically advantaged students (the top 25% in the index) across PISA-D countries were five times more likely than disadvantaged students (the bottom 25% in the index), on average, to attain the minimum level of proficiency (Level 2) in mathematics. Very few disadvantaged students achieved even minimum levels of proficiency.