Pisa 2018: Insights and Interpretations [pdf]

"In mathematics and science, PISA 2018 suggests that gender differences are generally small (Figure 15). Boys outperformed girls just by five score points in mathematics, on average across OECD countries, and girls outperformed boys in science just by two score points...

The picture is very different when it comes to reading. In all countries and economies that participated in PISA 2018, girls significantly outperformed boys in reading -- by 30 score points...

Perhaps surprisingly, the large gender gap in reading performance observed amongst 15-year-olds in PISA virtually disappears amongst the 16-29 year-olds who were assessed by the OECD Survey of Adult Skills."

I continue to find these PISA results mostly mysterious. It's not a coincidence: ALL countries report better reading score for girls. But it's also not easy to explain (see results for adults).

Estonia is ranked 5th in reading, 8th in maths, and 4th in science, despite having a budget per student lower than OECD average! It's the first non Asian country. What's happening there?