Agnieszka Chłoń-Domińczak

Michał Federowicz

How did educational reforms in Poland lead to significant progress in PISA ?

Educational reforms and international assessment

• The first cycle of PISA programme coincided with the reforms of the Buzek government (1998/1999), which added the significance of PISA results for Poland (PISA 2000 examined the previous system of education; PISA 2003 and later – the new one)

• In the next cycles PISA has been used to strengthen the debate on the quality of upper-secondary education and contributed to the education policy-making.

• The international large-scale assessments are increasingly used to strengthen national research capacity and are adapted to address main policy challenges by including additional research questions, using longitudinal design and extending the scope of studies.

PISA trends in Poland

improvement of competences – especially in reading

significant reduction of low achievers

reduction of differences between schools in students’ achievements

Reading Mathematics Science

Pisa trends 2000-2012

Share of low achievers in the EU and Poland

Mathematics 14,4%

Science 9,0%

Reading 10,6%

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Poland has became actively involved in the international large-scale asssessment studies. The results of these studies play increasingly important role in education debates.

Changes in the system of education 1989-2013

Gradual decentralization (completed in 1999) – schools are run by municipalities and counties

Changes to the school structure (1999)

Substantial school autonomy

Introduction of external exams (since 1999)

Changes in core curricula (2008, implemented in 2009-2015)

Changes in curricula of vocational schools (2011, implemented in 2012-2016)

Changes in the higher education (growing autonomy, growth of private sector, implementation of Bologna process – two-cycle system)

Reform of the higher education system (2010)

The reform of the educational system of the Buzek government

Comprehensive reforms of educational system of 1998 (accompanied by the administration reform):

transfer of schools to local government together with financial resources for their management

change of the structure of school system (6+3+3 instead of 8+4)

rationalization of school network, especially in rural areas

reform of core curricula

reform of the assessment framework, including the introduction of external examinations system (first administered in 2002)

new system of teachers’ career promotion and remuneration system

incentives for broad participation of teachers’ professional training

ISCED 0 ISCED 1 ISCED 2 ISCED 3 ISCED 4-6 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

ISCED 0 ISCED 1-2 ISCED 3 ISCED 4-6 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

PRIMARY SCHOOL LOWER SECONDARY PRE-PRIMARY EDUCATION

UPPER SECONDARY GENERAL

UPPER SECONDARY VOCATIONAL SCHOOL

BASIC VOCATIONAL SCHOOL

PRE-PRIMARY EDUCATION

Previous structure of school system (PISA 2000)

New structure of school system (since PISA 2003)

PRIMARY SCHOOL

UPPER SECONDARY VOCATIONAL SCHOOL

BASIC VOCATIONAL SCHOOL

UPPER SECONDARY GENERAL

Changes introduced from1999: introduction of the new school type ‒ ISCED 2 and extension of general (comprehensive) education by one year (related to 15-year-olds)

Primary school external exam

Lower secondary school exam

Matura exam

Vocational qualifications’

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The extension of general education was backed by growing educational aspirations, reflected in the choices of students and changing structure of upper-secondary schools.

1970/71 1975/76 1981/82 1984/85 1990/91 1995/96 2000/01 2005/06 2010/11

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

26%19% 18% 18% 21%

29%39% 44% 46%

34%

25% 27% 24%29%

33%

36%39% 35%

40%

56% 55% 57%49%

38%26%

17% 20%

general (ISCED 3A) vocational (ISCED 3A)basic vocational (ISCED 3C)

First-grade students in (upper)secondary schools by type of school (school years 1970/71- 2010/11)

Changes in between- school variance of student performance

Between school variance of student performance shows to what extent the choice of the school is a decision that affects the life chances of the child.

Between 2000 and 2009 Poland reduced its total variation in PISA reading performance of 15 years’ olds by 20%. Between-school variance was reduced substantially and since 2003 is well below OECD average.

„Scandinavian” systems:

Finland – 9%Norway – 10%Iceland – 14%Sweden – 18%Poland 19%

Central European systems:

Germany – 60%Slovenia – 57%Austria – 56%Hungary – 46%Slovak Republic – 40%

Between-school variation of student performance (PISA reading scale)

2000 2003 2006 20090%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%63%

14% 15% 14%

grade 9

Since 2006, in addition to international study of 15 years’olds, PISA test is also administered among older students.

Results show, that upper-secondary to a large extent resemble schools attended by 15 years olds’ in the year 2000.

Substantial between-school variance in upper-secondary schools results mainly from the variation between types of schools

2000 (grade 9) 2006 (grade 10) 2009 (grade 10)0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

50%38%

47%

13%

20%18%

37% 42% 36%

Within schoolBetween schoolsBetween type of school

Despite the overall improvement in performance after 2000 the differences between three major types of schools remain substantial.

below level 2 level 2 and 3 level 4 and 50%

20%

40%

60%

80%

2%

39%

59%

13%

70%

17%

58%

41%

1%

general (ISCED 3A) vocational (ISCED 3A)basic vocational (ISCED 3C)

New core curriculum 2008

Core curriculum extends the general comprehensive education to the first grade of upper-secondary schools (as a secod-best solution to yet another change of the school structure)

Core curriculum defines learning outcomes for each stage of education. For every school subject, they consist of two types of requirements:

specifc – defined in a form of „can do” statements

general – which define overall goals of education and emphasizes the importance of development of complex skills, such as critical thinking, argumentation and reasoning skills

Core curriculum includes only general directions on the curriculum and learning environment and does not prescribe specific content of instruction.

Structure of the core curriculum for general education (1999, 2009)

ISCED 0 ISCED 1 ISCED 2 ISCED 33 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

UPPER SECONDARY GENERALPRIMARY SCHOOL

LOWERSECONADARY

PRE-PRIMARY EDUCATION

UPPER SECONDARY VOCATIONAL SCHOOL

BASIC VOCATIONAL SCHOOL

Pre-primaryPrimary: stage I

Primary: stage II

Lower-secondary:

stage III

Upper-secondary:stage IV- basic

- extended

Comprehensive general education

Comprehensive general education

before 1999

since 1999

since 2009Comprehensive general education

TIME AND WORKING CONDITIONS OF TEACHERS

TIME AND WORKING CONDITIONS OF TEACHERS

Digital era in PolandAccess to 15 year-olds to Internet

Results of IEA Teacher Education and Development Study – Mathematics 2008 (TEDS-M).

200

300

400

500

600

700

519 512 491452

345

604575 552 544

506 503

Mathematics pedagogy content knowledge of future teachers (IEA TEDS-M 2008)

generalist teachers: programs that prepare teachers for integrated teaching in first grades of primary school

specialist teachers: programs that prepare teachers of mathematics in primary school

Challenge beyond PISA:Weakness of mathematics education is early education in grades 1-3.

Challenge beyond PISA: PIAAC results for Poland

It's like pushing a bus - you have to push a long time before it moves”

Professor Zbigniew Marciniak on reforming an education system