The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment

The OECD PISA: Unraveling a Knowledge Network tracesthe construction of an international studentassessment by the Organzation for InternationalCo-operation and Development (OECD). The PISA isanalyzed within the context of the globalarchitecture of education where variousagents such as the OECD and other internationalorganizations states and communities of experts arereconstructing reproducing and legitimizing thediscourse and material practices of societal andeconomic progress.The book argues that the PISA is a fragile entity. Itis susceptible to contestation not only as it islocated in a highly politicized setting the OECDbut also because it is founded on thesocially-constructed science of educational measurement.This research work reveals that theinternational educational indicators that informpublic policy decision-making are the result of aseries of negotiated compromises made by communitiesof practice occupying various institutionalstructures within the global architecture of education.