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Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Accredits CTB/McGraw Hill as Sole Administrator of New OECD Test for Schools in the United States

Benchmark assessment tool based on PISA exam will help schools to regularly gauge their progress against international college and workforce readiness standards


New benchmark assessment tool based on influential PISA exam will help schools to regularly gauge their progress against international college and workforce readiness standards

MONTEREY, Calif., Dec. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- CTB/McGraw-Hill, one of the nation's leading educational assessment partners, today announced that it has been selected by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to administer the OECD Test for Schools through 2015. This new assessment, based on the influential Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), is a tool that will allow U.S. high schools to annually benchmark student performance against PISA's international education standards. The announcement follows CTB/McGraw-Hill's successful execution of a pilot of the new test, completed in November 2012.

"We are honored to have been selected as the accredited service providers by the OECD to offer this new assessment, which promises to provide critically important insights about the college and career readiness of students in the United States," said Ellen Haley, president of CTB/McGraw-Hill. "By allowing schools to more frequently evaluate student performance against the PISA Framework, this new tool offers schools the opportunity to effectively shape and monitor the preparedness of their students for a globally competitive society."

Schools that participate in the OECD Test for Schools will be provided with extensive reports detailing their performance compared to the PISA results of students and schools in nations, economies, and groups of demographically similar schools. As the exclusive administrator of the test in the United States, CTB/McGraw-Hill will provide schools with all testing services, including test administration and reporting. A unique and appealing element of this test for schools is that only a representative sample of students is required to take the assessment in most schools.

PISA, a global study conducted every three years by the OECD that examines students' competencies, skills and knowledge in the critical subject areas of mathematics, science and reading, has become the most widely respected international measure of students' preparedness for college and workforce success in the world. The United States has participated in PISA since its first administration in 2000. Although the OECD Test for Schools is based on the same assessment frameworks as the main PISA assessment, the two assessments — and the findings they provide — are different. While the PISA assessment is intended to provide aggregate national and select sub-national results for comparisons, the OECD Test for Schools is designed to allow individual schools to benchmark their performance and to use the results to inform policy and school improvements.

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Contact
Tyler Reed
McGraw Hill
(914) 512-4853
tyler.reed@mheducation.com