When PISA does not matter? The case of the Czech Republic and Germany

Abstract

The present paper gives an overview of the reflections of and reactions to publishing the results of the first wave of the OECD study Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in the Czech Republic and in Germany. The choice of these two countries enables us to document how the same results could be perceived very differently in diverse country contexts and could lead to a different reaction from policy-makers. In spite of large reforms and numerous policy measures being adopted in Germany in reaction to the PISA results, compared with no response from policy-makers in the Czech Republic, it is argued, that in both countries policy-makers failed to tackle the major problem of their educational systems- its selective nature. In the final section we discuss various mis(uses) of PISA and its supranational and global character influencing local policies. © Institute for Research in Social Communication, Slovak Academy of Sciences.