PISA was initiated and is organized by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It is coordinated by the PISA team at the OECD Secretariat. The priorities of the study are set by the PISA Governing Board, which includes one representative from the Ministry of Education of each participating country.

Until now, PISA has been conducted every three years (with the exception of 2022, when it was postponed by one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Starting from 2025, it will be conducted every four years. Poland has participated in every cycle of PISA since its very beginning in 2000.

PISA measures the skills of fifteen-year-olds that are essential for effective functioning in adult life in the following areas:

• reading,
• mathematics,
• science.

In each cycle of the study, one of these three domains is designated as the major focus and is more extensively developed. This allows for more precise and detailed analyses of that particular area. The major domains in each cycle of the study were as follows: reading – in 2000, 2009, and 2018; mathematics – in 2003, 2012, and 2022; science – in 2006, 2015, and 2025.

Each cycle of the study can also include additional domains and components, both national and international. Poland participated in the financial literacy assessment in 2012, 2015, 2018, and 2022; in the problem-solving assessment in 2006 and 2012; and in the creative thinking assessment in 2022. Polish students are taking part in the “learning in the digital world” assessment in PISA 2025.

The study also covers a range of contextual issues, relating, among other things, to students’ opinions and attitudes, their home environment and educational experiences, as well as school resources and organization. Data on these issues are collected through questionnaires completed by students and school principals from the sampled schools, and – depending on the cycle and country – also by teachers of the assessed domains and students’ parents.

Participants in the PISA study are students who turned 15 in the year preceding the assessment. During the period in Poland when the education system included six-year primary schools and lower secondary schools (gimnazjum), nearly all 15-year-old PISA participants attended the third year of lower secondary school. Under the current system of eight-year primary schools, the participants are mainly students in the first and second years of upper secondary school.

The study is conducted on a representative, random sample of students. Based on the results, conclusions can be drawn about the entire population of 15-year-olds attending school in a given country. The sampling is done in two stages – first, schools are randomly selected, and then individual students are randomly chosen from those schools. In Poland, approximately 200–250 schools are usually involved in the study.

During the assessment, students complete task sets in specific study domains, followed by questionnaires. In the 2000–2012 cycles, the study was conducted in paper format. Since 2006, elements of computer-based assessment have been gradually introduced. They were first implemented in Poland in 2009. Since 2015, the PISA study has been conducted primarily as a computer-based assessment, and since 2018, adaptive testing has been introduced in the major assessment domains. This allows the difficulty level of questions to be adjusted to the estimated skill level of the students tested.

The first cycles of the study in Poland were conducted by the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFiS PAN). Since 2015, the Educational Research Institute has been responsible for implementing the study on behalf of the Ministry of National Education. In the first PISA cycle in 2000, 43 countries and regions participated, including Poland. Since then, the number of participating countries has increased significantly. More than 90 countries and regions are taking part in PISA 2025.

More information is available on the Polish PISA study website and on the OECD website.

Data and instruments