Learning for Tomorrow's World—First Results from PISA 2003 presents initial results from the PISA 2003 assessment. The report goes well beyond an examination of the relative standing of countries in mathematics, science, and reading. It also looks at a wider range of educational outcomes that include students’ motivation to learn, their beliefs about themselves, and their learning strategies.

The results show that U.S. 15-year-olds’ performances in both mathematics and problem-solving were significantly below the average of their peers in other industrialized countries. U.S. students also had lower scores than the OECD average scores for each of the four content area subscales—space and shape, change and relationships, quantity, and uncertainty. The results of the problem solving assessment were quite similar. This assessment examined students’ capabilities relative to solving real-life problems involving decision making, analysis of systems, and trouble-shooting. The U.S. students’ performances were judged most like those of 15-year-olds in Spain, Portugal, and Italy. Fifty-eight percent of U.S. students were judged capable of only solving problems where the reasoning level was only making a decision among well-defined alternatives. They were generally unable to reason and solve problems that involved multiple information sources, multiple decision steps, or translation among various representations for the information provided or required.

Factors related to home and social-economic issues were also found to have a greater effect on student performance in the U.S. than in the majority of participating countries. These findings, when added to the findings of previous studies, suggest that which school a student attends in the U.S. has a much greater impact on a student’s opportunity to learn than a similar assignment has for students in other countries.  These, and other findings dealing with home influences, suggest that many of the problems affecting U.S. outcomes are outside the reach of classroom teachers.  Many issues seem to be related to the structural features of U.S. education and societal institutions.

The findings in PISA reports have serious implications for education at home. As the 2003 report explains, “Comparative international analyses can extend and enrich the national picture by providing a larger context within which to interpret national results. They can provide countries with information to judge their areas of relative strength and weakness and to monitor progress. They can also stimulate countries to raise aspirations. And they can provide evidence to direct national policy, for schools’ curricula and instructional efforts and for students’ learning.”

Dossey became involved with the PISA study at a request of the OECD and the U.S. Department of Education. His previous experience with similar national and international comparative studies reaching back to 1975 led to their request he assume the leadership role in the PISA 2003 studies. Dossey had previously authored reports on the Second and Third International Mathematics Studies, as well as the U.S. National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). He also served as President of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (1986-1988) and as chair of the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences (1996-1998). Dossey was a 2003-04 College of Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame inductee and served on the College's Executive Round Table. He is currently a member of the Emeritus Faculty Advisory Board and the CAS Development Council.

The report is available to download from the OECD website.