Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Accredits CTB/McGraw-Hill as Exclusive Administrator of New OECD Test for Schools in the United States

MONTEREY, Calif., Dec. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- CTB/McGraw-Hill, one of the nation's leading educational assessment partners, today announced that it has been selected by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to administer the OECD Test for Schools through 2015. This new assessment, based on the influential Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), is a tool that will allow U.S. high schools to annually benchmark student performance against PISA's international education standards. The announcement follows CTB/McGraw-Hill's successful execution of a pilot of the new test, completed in November 2012.

"We are honored to have been selected by the OECD to offer this new assessment, which promises to provide critically important insights about the college and career readiness of students in the United States," said Ellen Haley, president of CTB/McGraw-Hill. "By allowing schools to more frequently evaluate student performance against the PISA Framework, this new tool offers schools the opportunity to effectively shape and monitor the preparedness of their students for a globally competitive society."

Schools that participate in the OECD Test for Schools will be provided with extensive reports detailing their performance compared to the PISA results for nations, economies, and groups of demographically similar schools. As the exclusive administrator of the test in the United States, CTB/McGraw-Hill will provide schools with all testing services, including test administration and reporting. A unique and appealing element of this test for schools is that only a representative sample of students is required to take the assessment in most schools.

PISA, a global study conducted every three years by the OECD that examines students' skills and knowledge in the critical subject areas of mathematics, science and reading, has become the most widely respected international measure of students' preparedness for college and workforce success in the world. The United States has participated in PISA since its first administration in 2000. Although the OECD Test for Schools is based on the same assessment frameworks as the main PISA assessment, the two assessments — and the findings they provide — are different. While the PISA assessment is intended to provide aggregate national and select sub-national results for comparisons, the OECD Test for Schools is designed to  allow individual schools to benchmark their performance and to use the results to inform policy and school improvements. 

CTB is currently accepting registrations from US schools and districts who wish to participate in the 2013-2014 OECD Test for Schools.  For more information on how to enroll, please visit CTB.com/OECDTestforSchools.

About CTB/McGraw-Hill
CTB/McGraw-Hill, a division of McGraw-Hill Education, has an 85-year record of innovation and excellence in assessment, and serves more than 18 million students in all 50 states and in 49 countries. One of the first American publishers to introduce objective, standardized achievement tests to schools, today CTB/McGraw-Hill is a leader in testing with recognized products for online interim and formative, adult, and language proficiency assessment. Dedicated to advancing the use of student performance data to inform instructional decision making, CTB/McGraw-Hill's innovation continues today with technologies that include Web-based assessment and reporting, student response device software, and artificial intelligence for automated scoring of student essays. For more information, visit CTB.com/AboutUs.

SOURCE CTB/McGraw-Hill