Global Education Race: Taking the Measure of PISA and International Testing

The Global Education Race provides an indispensable road map to the world’s most pervasive testing program. The authors show with a wealth of evidence that it is high time that we make the transition from the cul-de-sac of big data to the far more inspiring galaxy of big ideas. Professor Dennis Shirley, Lynch School of Education, Boston College

This book seeks to broaden professional and public understandings of what PISA is, what it does, what it cannot do, how it is often used, and how it ought to be used for productive policy purposes. This book is exemplary in fulfilling this task and demands to be read. Professor Bob Lingard, School of Education, The University of Queensland

Their book has a number of strong virtues. It is short, balanced, eminently readable, and, unlike some other academic critiques of PISA, the authors know what they are talking about. They are also not afraid to set out some clear policy proposals. Education International

What sets Sellar, Thompson and Rutkowski’s book apart from other literature is its ability to engage with complexity in an accessible way; to explain clearly without simplifying; and to avoid binaries and polarising divides while acknowledging differing perspectives. the edu flaneuse

The Global Education Race is a book every educator should read. In a time when education funding and support is so hotly debated, the book helps build the capacity for the wider public to engage in one of the most popular data sets used when developing policy. Read Write Respond

The book is comprehensive in its understanding and offers a real insight into the worth and workings of PISA. PPTA News

A useful read for academics, this book engages a broader audience and is primarily geared toward parents and educators. It equips readers with talking points to enable them to engage confidently in conversations about international testing. ATA Magazine

For everyone else [with limited knowledge of PISA] working in schools, education policy or research—and especially if your knowledge of PISA is limited to the stories you read in the mainstream press—then this is a must-read—and a quick, accessible one. Schools Week

The Global Education Race is a concise, yet thoughtful, pragmatic and well-referenced look at the role of large-scale international student testing. Canadian Journal of Education

This book makes an important contribution to a limited literature aiming to make educational assessment accessible to a readership beyond education professionals. British Journal of Educational Studies

This eminently readable book certainly lives up to the authors’ claims that it represents an accessible introduction to PISA, and is largely successful in its aim of raising readers’ awareness of the benefits and limitations of the test. International School magazine