The achievement of Australia's Indigenous students in PISA ... - ACER

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Performance in reading literacy over time One of the main aims of PISA is to examine student performance over time so that policy makers can monitor learning outcomes in both an international and national context. Although the optimal reporting of trends will occur between each full assessment of a literacy domain (for example, in reading between PISA 2000 and PISA 2009, in which the major focus will again be on reading literacy), PISA has been designed so that it is possible to compare results between each three-year cycle. Nevertheless, care needs to be taken in making comparisons involving minor domains, as there are a smaller number of test items included in minor domains and also small refinements continue to be made in PISA’s methodology which may have an effect on comparability over time. At a national level, there were no statistically significant differences in the average reading performance of students in PISA 2000 and PISA 2003. Between PISA 2003 and PISA 2006, however, there was a significant decrease in the average reading literacy performance of Australian students. Table 2.8 shows the mean scores for Indigenous students for PISA 2000, PISA 2003 and PISA 2006 and the differences in performance between each cycle. Although there appears to have been a decline in the average reading literacy performance of Indigenous students across the three PISA cycles, these changes are not statistically significant. Table 2.8: Mean reading literacy scores and standard errors for PISA 2000, PISA 2003 and PISA 2006, and differences between performance in cycles for Indigenous students PISA 2000 PISA 2003 PISA 2006 PISA 2000 and PISA 2003 Differences between PISA 2003 and PISA 2006 PISA 2000 and PISA 2006 Mean SE Mean SE Mean SE Diff. SE Diff. SE Diff. SE 448 3.1 444 8.6 434 6.9 -4 10.6 -10 11.9 -14 9.1 Summary Indigenous students have performed relatively poorly in reading literacy in each of the three PISA cycles, performing substantially lower than non-Indigenous students and also substantially lower than students on average across all OECD countries. Across all three PISA cycles, it is apparent that Indigenous students are over-represented in the lower proficiency levels and under-represented in the high proficiency levels. In PISA 2000, four per cent of Indigenous students achieved at the highest proficiency level in reading literacy and more than one third of Indigenous students failed to attain proficiency Level 2. Similar results were found in PISA 2003 and PISA 2006. Indigenous females scored significantly higher than Indigenous males in all PISA cycles. This difference represents more than half of a proficiency level. At the higher end of the reading literacy proficiency scale, there were similar percentages of Indigenous female and male students who achieved Level 5. At the lower end of the proficiency scale, there were more Indigenous males than Indigenous females who had not achieved Level 2. Investigation on the three subscales (retrieving information, interpreting texts and reflection and evaluation) showed Indigenous students performed at a similar level on each of the subscales. Differences between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students’ performances on each of the subscales were also consistent, however, with more than one whole proficiency level separating them. Approximately 15 per cent of Indigenous students were able to achieve Level 4 or Level 5 in each of these subscales; however, one third of Indigenous students were not able to achieve Level 2. Despite these differences, and the finding that the average performance of Australian students as a whole has decreased across the three PISA cycles, the performance of Indigenous students has not changed significantly in the past nine years. 22 Reading literacy
Chapter 3 Mathematical literacy In PISA 2003 the main focus of assessment was mathematical literacy. In this cycle the mathematical literacy framework was expanded and proficiency levels were defined and described for mathematical literacy overall, as well as for four subscales. This chapter starts with a description of mathematical literacy and how this domain is measured 8 . The subsequent sections examine the performance of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in mathematical literacy in the PISA assessments. Definition of mathematical literacy The PISA mathematical literacy domain focuses on the capacities of students to analyse, reason and communicate ideas effectively as they pose, formulate, solve and interpret mathematical problems in a variety of situations. The PISA assessment framework defines mathematical literacy as: …an individual’s capacity to identify and understand the role that mathematics plays in the world, to make well-founded judgements and to use and engage with mathematics in ways that meet the needs of that individual’s life as a constructive, concerned and reflective citizen. (OECD, 2006, p.72) In this conception, mathematical literacy is about meeting life needs and functioning in society. Mathematical literacy is expressed through using and engaging with mathematics, making informed judgements, and understanding the usefulness of mathematics in relation to the demands of life. The PISA mathematics assessment directly confronts the importance of the functional use of mathematics by placing primary emphasis on a real-world problem situation, and on the mathematical knowledge and competencies that are likely to be useful in dealing effectively with such a problem. The PISA mathematics framework was written to encourage an approach to teaching and learning mathematics that gives strong emphasis to the processes associated with confronting a problem in a real-world context, transforming the problem into one amenable to mathematical treatment, making use of the relevant mathematical knowledge to solve it, and evaluating the solution in the original problem context. If students can learn to do these things, they will be much better equipped to make use of their mathematical knowledge and skills throughout their lives. 8 Information about the mathematical literacy assessment framework has been taken from the PISA 2006 National Report, Exploring Scientific Literacy: How Australia measures up. The achievement of Australia’s Indigenous students in PISA 2000 – 2006 23
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