%0 Newspaper Article %B The Economist %D 2014 %T Ranking the Rankings %A Beth A. Simmons %X

Education ministers across the globe quake in the run-up to the publication, every three years, of the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which rates 15-year-olds’ academic performance in dozens of countries. Those that do well can expect glory; the first PISA ranking, published in 2001, surprised the world by putting unshowy Finland near the top in every subject and made it a mandatory stop-off for any self-respecting education policymaker. Germany’s poor showing, by contrast, led to national hand-wringing, school reforms and the creation of a €4 billion ($5 billion) federal education support programme.

%B The Economist %G eng %U http://www.economist.com/news/international/21631039-international-comparisons-are-popular-influentialand-sometimes-flawed-ranking-rankings