"The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a three-yearly survey of the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds in the principal industrialised countries. This Executive Summary reports on the initial results of PISA 2003. These reports go well beyond an examination of the relative standing of countries in mathematics, science, reading, and problem solving, looking at a wider range of educational outcomes that includes students' motivation to learn, their beliefs about themselves and their learning strategies. The reports also consider how performance varies between the genders and between socio-economic groups, and provide insights into some of the factors that influence the development of knowledge and skills at home and at school, how these factors interact and what the implications are for policy development. Most importantly, the reports shed light on countries that succeed in achieving high performance standards while, at the same time, providing an equitable distribution of learning opportunities."
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