Houston School Makes Waves on International Academic Test

HOUSTON, TX — It's known as the Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA, and it's not an easy test. But that didn't seem to faze Chavez High School students, whose scores on the exam showed remarkable progress compared to the school's same results three years earlier.

The 2015 PISA was administered to more than 500,000 15-year-old students in 72 countries, who were assessed in science, mathematics, reading, collaborative problem solving, and financial literacy, and the results were released this week.

Chavez, the majority of whose 3,000 students are Hispanic and from low-income homes, outperformed similar schools on the test, something that understandably pleased the the school's principal, Rene Sanchez.

“There’s a certain amount of pride to let them know that they belong, that they belong on the world stage,”Sanchez told Houston Public Media's Laura Isensee. “We’ve been able to move math and science to above the trend line and English onto the trend line, so we’ve been able to show that growth and it’s made us extremely excited.”

Sanchez said that three actions led to the improved scores: the amount of mathematics taught to freshman was doubled; the needs of all students were made a priority; and subjects such as math and science were connected to real-world scenarios.

Wondering who earned top PISA honors? That would be Singapore's 15-year-olds, who achieved a 556 mean score. Japan, Estonia, Chinese Taipei, and Finland rounded out the top five. The United States came in 25th place overall.

— Image courtesy wikipedia