America Achieves
For A PISA School Network Meeting
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Amount$100,000
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Program
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Date Awarded11/5/2012
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Term4 Months
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Type of SupportGeneral Support/Organization
Overview
Every three years, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) conducts a worldwide assessment of 15-year-old students and ranks the countries by math, reading and science scores. In 2011, we supported the development and pilot of a "PISA for schools" test in the United States to provide, for the first time, school-level results comparable to international benchmarks and the performance of other participating schools. America Achieves proposes to conduct a meeting of school and state officials, data experts, and the PISA developer--the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development--to help schools, districts, and states to share data and encourage use of the PISA for schools test for learning and continuous improvement, as well as for international benchmarking. At the same time, the meeting will provide a venue to announce the international launch of the PISA-based Test for Schools and kick off the next round of U.S. school recruitment efforts for the test.
About the Grantee
Grantee Website
www.americaachieves.org
Address
100 West 33rd Street Suite 917-Box 900, New York, NY, 10001, United States
Grants to this Grantee
for general operating support
Since its inception, America Achieve’s goals have closely paralleled the Program’s. This grant would support work to expand the OECD’s PISA-Based Test for Schools, whose pilot the Program funded; define and support desired student outcomes in deeper learning; and communicate the successes of deeper learning achieved through classroom and school practices.
for the Raising the Bar project
This grant would support the planning and technology development phase of a national campaign to ignite a sense of urgency, optimism, and responsibility for raising the bar for U.S. education. The project’s major goals are to drive parental demand for rigor, secure support for the Common Core standards, and mitigate the risk of backlash when test results emerge in 2015. The plan will be piloted in two or three states in 2013, with national rollout in fall of 2014.
for the Results for America project to improve use of evidence in federal budget allocations
The U.S. government is facing a growing deficit and significant budget constraints, and resultant efforts to cut spending threaten many social programs. As New York Times columnist David Brooks suggests, "We’re going to be doing a lot of deficit cutting over the next several years. The country’s future greatness will be shaped by whether we cut wisely or stupidly." Today less than 1 percent of federal spending explicitly considers evidence of impact as a criterion for funding. Launched in 2012, Results for America seeks to improve the impact of public resources, shifting the funding debate toward a discussion of impact as a basis for resource allocation.
