Evaluation of mathematical performance in PISA: focus on Latin American countries

Abstract

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) has provided important insights into student performance in the field of mathematics in Latin America in the editions already held, from 2000 to 2022. Unfortunately, the results show a significant gap between the Latin American countries and the OECD member countries taking part in the assessment. In view of this, the general objective of this article is to analyze the results in the area of Mathematics in PISA in Latin American countries in the 2000-2022 editions. As a methodology, we used exploratory research with an emphasis on the official documents published by Pisa and made available by the OECD. The main results show that the Latin American countries - Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay - have lower averages than the countries that take part in the assessment, ranging from 334 to 456 points over the course of the editions. They also indicate that Latin American countries have achieved lower positions and have grown in a mild manner, demonstrating that students have basic math skills that are only enough to understand results and solve simple questions that are related to the context, without going into significant depth. Continued analysis of these results is crucial to strengthening more effective educational policies and promoting equity in access to quality mathematics education in Latin America.