This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: We've just received the results of the latest PISA test—the international assessment of 15-year-olds' science, math and reading skills. In Australia, the reporting followed a script that will be familiar to anyone who keeps an eye on what happens in schools and academic results.
Indigenous students were compared to non-Indigenous students and found to be 72 points behind non-Indigenous students in science, 76 points behind in reading and 74 points behind in math. Average scores for PISA are typically around 500 points. Those numbers are accurate—but they tell only part of the story.
For example, in PISA, average Indigenous science scores rose 16 points since 2022, while non-Indigenous scores did not move. Indigenous scores in reading and math also held steady, while non-Indigenous scores dipped. The PISA "gap" mirrors reporting of NAPLAN scores, the literacy and numeracy testing of Australian students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9.
These also highlight how Indigenous students lag behind their non-Indigenous peers and make no room for talking about Indigenous successes. There are other ways of looking at the scores. A 2024 study led by Peter Anderson examined a decade of NAPLAN data and found that comparing Indigenous students with non-Indigenous students' averages obscured what is actually working.
When Indigenous students were matched with Indigenous peers who shared similar starting points, some schools and systems showed real, sustained gains. These gains did not show up in conventional comparisons. PISA is designed by the OECD to measure how well 15-year-olds apply what they know to real-life challenges.
This means Indigenous students are not just being measured against their non-Indigenous peers in Australia but against the OECD's version of "real life." Australian data on student and school characteristics shows 80% of the Indigenous students who took the most recent PISA test come from the lowest two socioeconomic quarters. Half come from the lowest quarter alone. This tells us Indigenous students are not starting from the same position as their non-Indigenous peers.
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