This first volume of PISA 2012 results summarises the performance of students in PISA 2012. It describes how performance is defined, measured and reported, and then provides results from the assessment, showing what students are able to do in mathematics. After a summary of mathematics performance, it examines the ways in which this performance varies on subscales representing different aspects of mathematics literacy. Given that any comparison of the outcomes of education systems needs to take into consideration countries’ social and economic circumstances, and the resources they devote to education, the volume also presents the results within countries’ economic and social contexts. In addition, the volume examines the relationship between the frequency and intensity of students’ exposure to subject content in school, what is known as “opportunity to learn”, and student performance. The volume concludes with a description of student results in reading and science. Trends in student performance in mathematics between 2003 and 2012, in reading between 2000 and 2012, and in science between 2006 and 2012 are examined when comparable data are available. Throughout the volume, case studies examine in greater detail the policy reforms adopted by countries that have improved in PISA.
