Are socio-economically disadvantaged students condemned to perpetuate an intergenerational cycle of poor academic achievement, poor job prospects and poverty? Not if they attend schools that provide them with more regular classes.<P> Resilient students in the 2006 and 2009 PISA surveys displayed...</p>

<ul> <li> One in eight students across OECD countries has repeated a grade at least once before the age of 15. </li> <li> Many countries reduced the rate of grade repetition between 2003 and 2012. </li> <li> One in five disadvantaged 15-year-olds has repeated a grade. Even among students with similar academic...</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Strong performers and successful reformers in education share some key characteristics: a belief in the potential of all their students, strong political will, and the capacity of all stakeholders to make sustained and concerted efforts towards improvement. </li> <li>Countries/Economies that have...</li></ul>

<ul> <li> To do well on PISA’s first assessment of creative problem-solving skills, students need to be open to novelty, tolerate doubt and uncertainty, and dare to use intuition to initiate a solution. </li> <li>Just because a student performs well in core school subjects doesn’t mean he or she is...</li></ul>

<ul> <li> In most school systems, over 50% of 15-year-olds students attend schools that compete with another school to attract students from the same residential area. </li> <li>Across countries and economies, performance is unrelated to whether or not schools have to compete for students. </li> <li>When choosing a...</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Immigrant students who share a common country of origin, and therefore many cultural similarities, perform very differently across school systems. </li> <li>The difference in performance between immigrant students and non-immigrant students of similar socio-economic status is smaller in school systems...</li></ul>

<UL> <LI>Most 15-year-olds in OECD countries have some understanding of environmental issues and feel that threats to the environment are a serious concern for them and/or for other people in their country.</LI> <LI>Scientific understanding of the environment is key if students are to have a realistic...</li></li></ul>

<ul> <li> On average across the 13 OECD countries and economies that participated in the PISA financial literacy assessment, 10% of students can analyse complex financial products and solve non-routine financial problems, while 15% can, at best, make simple decisions about everyday spending, and...</li></ul>

<ul> <li>On average across OECD countries, around 4% of students are top performers in reading, mathematics and science (all-rounders). </li> <li>Australia, Finland, Hong Kong-China, Japan, New Zealand, Shanghai-China and Singapore have larger proportions of these students than any other country or economy. </li></ul>

Classrooms and schools with more disciplinary problems are less conducive to learning, since teachers have to spend more time creating an orderly environment before instruction can begin. Interruptions in the classroom disrupt students’ concentration on, and their engagement in, their lessons....