PISA Results Reveal Global Decline in Student Performance and Classroom Stability

Student scores in mathematics and reading have dropped in 37 of the 38 OECD countries. Since 2015, students aged 15 in the OECD have lost 22 points in mathematics and 27 points in reading, which is roughly equivalent to one school year of learning. In Spain, the decline is more pronounced. In Argentina, the results highlight a severe crisis in classroom environment. According to student surveys, 58 percent of Argentine students reported that noise and disorder interrupt most or all of their science classes, the highest percentage among 91 participating systems. Other Latin American countries including Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, and Chile also reported high levels of classroom disorder.

Experts offer various theories to explain these trends. Some point to the impact of the pandemic, the rise of social media and short video content, a decrease in sleep among adolescents, and a decline in reading for pleasure. In Spain, data shows that students who read weekly have decreased and performance dropped more on questions involving long texts. There is also a theory that the early adoption of artificial intelligence in wealthier households may have contributed to a larger drop in scores for students from high resource backgrounds.

Interpretations of these failures vary by political perspective. Center left sources frame the issue as a complex societal problem, citing the limits of schools to counterbalance social evils and calling for more resources and changes to the educational model. In contrast, center right sources frame the disorder in the classroom as a crisis of authority. One expert cited by a center right source argued that progressive discourse over several decades confused authority with authoritarianism, thereby weakening the power of teachers without providing a viable replacement.