Case Study

Meticulous work on pisa student knowledge assessment project

We took part in a unique project involving more than 90 countries, where we helped to revise and verify tests for measuring skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students internationally.

Project summary

Client type:
Language services company cApStAn acting as a contractor of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development).

Project:
Language verification of international PISA 2021 FT student knowledge assessment tests and related materials, with a focus on Mathematics.

Verified languages in one year:

  • Latvian – 66,000 words
  • Lithuanian – 27,000 words

Goals achieved:
Diskusija has successfully completed the language verification step needed to prepare and administer PISA tests in the Baltic States.

Introduction

The purpose of the PISA programme is to find out whether students can apply what they have learned in school to real life situations. Assessments of 15-year-old students globally help to show whether the school systems are becoming more or less effective in preparing their students for further study or professional work.

Diskusija was invited to provide the verification of PISA test materials in Baltic languages.

Challenges

  • The international test had to be prepared for consistency across all languages, maintaining the same readability, complexity and structure.
  • The peculiarities of the project had to be clearly communicated across the entire chain of linguists involved.
  • All work had to meet the standard of an international research project of such scale.

Solution

Diskusija’s pre-selected linguists travelled to participate in cApStAn’s on-site training in Brussels. This allowed us to gain an in-depth understanding of the project and thoroughly prepare for it. Not only was our team able to meet the client and discuss the project in person, but also had an opportunity to communicate with linguists from other countries who had already participated in the project and shared their insights.

In order to achieve operational efficiency, direct communication between the linguists and the client was organised at later stages as well.

Verification was performed by checking the target text against the source text and commenting all the findings. The key components were to successfully identify terminology, maintain consistency throughout the materials and retain the same level of complexity in the tests. Our team followed strict instructions and guidelines to deliver meticulous work in close cooperation with cApStAn. They reviewed our linguists’ output, and their involvement in feedback activities was particularly beneficial, as linguistic equivalence across all project languages had to be ensured.

Results

Unified teamwork with the client led to successful student knowledge assessment test verification. cApStAn has expressed its appreciation of the responsiveness, availability and professionalism of Diskusija staff.