PISA in Finland: An education miracle or an obstacle to change?

Abstract

The present article discusses the role and impact of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in Finland. PISA has created a new geography of education policies and reforms by shifting global interest away from Anglo-Saxon education systems to Asian countries, as well as to Finland and Canada in the West. The article describes how PISA has become evidence of the successful education reforms in Finland carried out since the 1970s, but at the same time has created a situation where the continuous renewal of the Finnish education system has become more difficult than before. The conclusion is that PISA is an important global benchmarking instrument, but that policy makers and the media need to make better use of the rich data that have been collected together with information about students' academic performance.