An acronym for the Program for International Student Assessment. This is an internationally standardized testing tool used to assess the literacy skills of 15-year-old students in reading, mathematics and science. All questions on the assessment are open-ended.

stands for Programme for International Student Assessment , which is an internationally standardized assessment that was jointly developed by participating countries and administered to15-year-olds in schools. The survey was implemented in 43 countries in the first assessment in 2000, in 41 countries in the second assessment in 2003 and at least 58 countries will participate in the third assessment in 2006. Tests are typically administered to between 4,500 and 10,000 students in each country.