Sarah Brady | January 4, 2018
Pisa tests, international assessments that help measure global education standards, will begin testing for teenagers’ “global competence” in addition to their reading, math and science abilities. The tests are run every three years by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which has set out new guidelines for how it will measure global competence next year.
The tests are “intended to find out how well young people can understand other people’s views and cultures, how they can look beyond the partisan echo chamber of social media and distinguish reliable evidence.” The OECD claims that by measuring global competence, it can help legitimize the importance of teaching tolerance and understanding, which can work to combat disengagement, ignorance and hatred. In turn, students will be prepared for the global economy and able to work with people from different cultures.
To learn more about the types of questions that will be included in the assessment and the values that the OECD is promoting, read the BBC article “Global education rankings to measure tolerance” by Sean Coughlan. And check out our website to find out more about our spring seminar, Building Stronger Bridges: Cultural Respect and Equity in the Classroom.