PISA - or, on how NOT to compare
International school assessments such as TIMSS and PISA require huge samples and sophisticated methodology to detect differences between countries (or "school systems") that are far smaller than variations among individual students. Dr. Wuttke's will explain in his keynote the core concepts behind the PISA analysis. We shall see how response tallies are converted into PISA points, and what a given difference may represent in terms of actual student achievement.
After addressing several problems with the test construct, the validity of the projection of student responses onto a single "competence" scale for each test area will be discussed.
About Joachim Wuttke
With the emergence of the highly debated OECD-PISA studies on school education, Joachim Wuttke appeard on stage as a vivid criticist of this kind of studies. This made him a well-known researcher on the this approach to comparison. Originally he read in physics, focusing on statistical physics, his academic carreer bringing him to research institutions in Munich, Grenoble, Mainz and New York. With a PhD in physical chemistry he returned to TU München for his habilitation in experimental physics. Specialised in software development, he used to work several years in the telecommunications industry before he underwent a teacher training. This experience sparked his interest in comparative studies such as PISA. Today, he is a senior researcher at the renowned Forschungszentrum Jülich at Garching, where he is responsible for open‑source software for the reduction and analysis of neutron and X‑ray scattering data.
EERSS 2026 Dates
Applications
10 November 2025 - 15 January 2026
Information on acceptance
1 March 2026
Registration/Payment
2 - 31 March 2026
Summer School
15 - 19 June 2026
Contact
Academic questions:
Prof. Dr. Volker Bank
TU Chemnitz
volker.bank(at)phil.tu-chemnitz.de
Organisational questions:
Doretta Dow
EERA Office
dow(at)eera.eu