Educational evaluation aims to improve the educational process by providing educators the information on the effectiveness of the current strategies that are implemented. To choose one example of an educational evaluation, I pick programme for international student assessment (PISA) which is a world-wide study intended to evaluate educational systems by measuring the performance of 15 year olds in various subjects; this study is conducted by the Economic Co-operation and Development. This helps educators understand and evaluate the abilities of their students to critically think and apply their knowledge in novel contexts.

The PISA evaluation tests aim to assess how successfully students are equipped for further studies and work; it is about collecting data to put together a picture of what the most effective educational system is like so we can learn the best educational practices and apply them internationally. Furthermore, the PISA educational evaluation provides indicators that are extremely useful for educational management in all the countries that choose to carry them out; this is done by using surveys to assess students about general subjects that include mathematics, science and reading.

On the other hand, critics of the evaluation method claim that the model may be good for some countries while being completely inappropriate for others. It has been identified that there are cultural and gender biases along with ethnic ones that puts the validity and reliability of the results, in question. The real world problems faced by students in poor countries are not assessed by these tests – which include mathematics, science and reading – and are probably more appropriate to students in wealthier countries. Moreover, the tests are narrow, only focusing on three subjects; this reflects the biases of the rich people as they are mainly involved in designing them.

In conclusion, while PISA as an evaluation method has numerous benefits as it allows students to be evaluated and promotes the establishment of the best education system, it has its own limitations.

Links:

https://antoinebodin.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/pisa-pros-and-cons.pdf

https://revisesociology.com/2020/05/15/the-pisa-global-education-tests-arguments-for-and-against/