1. A continued comeback
In its 2018 Pisa results, released on Tuesday, Sweden performed above the OECD average in all three key subject areas. Swedish 15-year-olds received a mean score of 506 in reading comprehension (compared to an OECD average of 487), 502 in mathematics (489) and 499 in science (489).
This continues an improvement first seen in 2015, when Sweden finally reversed its downward trend in the international rankings. That year, Swedish students' scored 500 in reading, 494 in mathematics and 493 in science. These were in line with the OECD average in mathematics and science, and above average in reading.
The comeback follows Sweden's lowest results ever in 2012, referred to in Swedish media as the 'Pisa shock'. That year, the OECD described Sweden as having "lost its way" when it experienced the sharpest drop in results of any country in the survey over a ten-year span, achieving only 483 in reading, 478 in mathematics, and 485 in science.
In 2018, the results have returned to roughly the same level as 2006, when results were first measured in all three subject areas. The reading result was one point lower than in 2006, the mathematics result identical, and the science result four points lower this year.
Pisa has measured scores in reading since 2000, and in the two first editions of its results, Swedish students scored even higher than today, achieving 516 points in 2000 and 514 in 2003.
"Pisa 2018 is confirmation that many students, teachers and headteachers are doing a good job. Swedish schools have problems to grapple with, but the idea that the Swedish school system is generally poor is a myth," said the Director General of the Swedish National Agency for Education, Peter Fredriksson.
Skolverket's Peter Fredriksson presents the Pisa results. Photo: Jonas Ekströmer/TT
2. Gender gap
Another positive sign is that boys in Sweden are catching up to girls in reading ability.
Globally, girls tend to score better than boys in reading, but in Sweden the gap is reducing. In the latest results girls' reading scores were 34 points above boys', slightly above the OECD average gap of 30 points but below the gap in 2009 of 46 points.
Since 2009, boys' results have improved in reading while girls' scores have remained more or less stable.
Girls also outperformed boys in science, by eight points, which was higher than the average two-point gender gap across the OECD.
In mathematics, girls and boys performed similarly in Sweden, while across the OECD as a whole boys performed around five points better.
3. Lower scores for immigrant children
The OECD noted in its report that Sweden's scores have improved since 2012 despite a rise over this period in the proportion of students with an immigrant background. In 2018, one in five students in Sweden had an immigrant background, up from just over one in ten (12 percent) in 2009.
But children born in Sweden still performed significantly better than their peers born overseas.
In the category of reading, there was a huge 83-point gap between the scores of immigrant and non-immigrant 15-year-olds, with the former performing better. That gap was reduced to a still significant 54 points when accounting for socioeconomic background.
And Pisa also noted that in 2018, around 11 percent of 15-year-olds were excluded from the tests, which was the highest rate among all the participating countries. It stated that this was "most likely the consequence of the large (and temporary) increase, between 2015 and 2018, of recently arrived immigrants in the school system".
"It could be estimated that, if the student population in 2009 had the same demographic profile as the
population in 2018, the average score in reading would have been nine points lower than what was
observed that year – and the recent trends would have been even more positive," the report said.
"The widening gap in reading performance between the highest- and lowest-achieving students also seemed to be at least partly related to growing shares of immigrant students."
Students pictured at a secondary school graduation. Photo: Christofer Dracke/Folio/imagebank.sweden.se
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4. Work to do on equality
The Pisa scores also measure equality in schools. By this measure, Sweden is at the OECD average, but this still represents a decline since the turn of the century when it had a high level of equality.
"We have large, far too large, differences in the results between different groups of students and different schools," said Skolverket General Director Peter Fredriksson.
Children from an “advantaged” socioeconomic background received an average of 89 points higher in reading than their peers from less privileged backgrounds. That's only a small difference from 2009, when the difference in Sweden was 91 points (and the OECD average was 87 points).
And socioeconomic status was a strong predictor of performance in mathematics and science too. It explained 13 percent of the variation in performance in both subjects, almost exactly the same as the OECD average.
But there were also positive signs in this respect. Disadvantaged students were slightly more likely in Sweden than elsewhere to be among the top performers. A total of five percent of disadvantaged Swedish students were top performers in reading in Sweden, compared to three percent across the OECD.
5. Teacher shortage
While principals were less likely in Sweden than in other OECD countries to report materials shortage, they were more likely to have a shortage of teachers.
The 2018 results also noted that headteachers of disadvantaged schools in Sweden were more likely to report a shortage of teachers.
And almost nine out of ten teachers in 'advantaged' schools were fully certified teachers, according to headteachers, compared to only 77 percent of teachers in disadvantaged schools.
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