OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)

The results of the OECD PISA 2009 Study were published on December 7, 2010. Reading was the major assessment domain in 2009, allowing for detailed comparisons with PISA 2000 with respect to performance and attitude. Fifteen-year olds in Ireland in 2009 achieved an average score on reading that was not significantly different from the OECD average. However, this represented a significant decline in performance since 2000, with the gap in favour of females also widening. In 2009, 42% of 15-year olds in Ireland (up from 33% in 2000) reported that they did not engage in any leisure reading, and males were more strongy represented in this group (48%) than females (36%). International reports on PISA 2009 can be downloaded from www.pisa.oecd.org. A summary report for Ireland is available at www.erc.ie/pisa