We examine the disparities in educational outcomes for high-income countries as they are reported by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), with a specific emphasis on a more nuanced exploration of SES-based achievement gaps. To explore differences in the educational inequality and disadvantages associated with SES-based achievement gaps by country, we analyze three measures: overall average performance, educational inequality (or achievement gaps), and educational disadvantage (comparative achievement gap patterns). We find that, when examined together, these three measures are instructive for understanding the differences in educational outcomes across countries. Our findings offer insight into the PISA results that go beyond average achievement. We recommend that country-level averages should not be emphasised or interpreted without also considering educational inequality and disadvantage.

Many countries attempt to increase their Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) rankings and scores over time. However, despite providing a more accurate assessment of the achievement-based improvements across countries, few studies have systematically examined growth in PISA scores over multiple assessments. Using data from the 2006, the 2009, and the 2012 PISA, we analyzed which countries experienced significant increases in their country-level average PISA scores between 2006 and 2012. To facilitate improved policy decisions, we also examined what country-level conditions were associated with such increases. Contrary to expectations, we found that few countries significantly increased their PISA scores over time. Countries that did experience meaningful improvements in PISA scores were more likely to have had lower PISA scores in 2006 and experienced country-level foundational advancements more recently, such as advancing to a more democratic form of government and/or a higher income classification.

Does school racial composition influence where parents choose to send their children to school? This paper contributes to the literature on school racial composition and parental choice by examining the reasons parents give for enrolling their children in predominantly Black magnet schools. We use data from a survey of parental school decision-making that was administered in one countywide, Southeastern school district in the 2002–03 school year. The survey data was collected a few years after the district’s release from its court desegregation order as Black students comprised an increasing share of magnet school enrollments. As such, we are able to assess parental decision-making at a critical time point in which school racial composition may have been an especially prevalent factor in where parents were choosing to enroll their children. We find that parents of White children only mentioned school academic quality in their discussions of magnet school choice. In contrast, parents of Black children mentioned that the joint combination of academic quality and racial composition of magnet schools was important in their school selection process. Specifically, Black parents expressed that the predominantly Black and high-achieving school environment of magnet schools provided their child with the opportunity to succeed academically among students of a similar racial background while experiencing less race-based discrimination and comparisons.