In a new opinion piece, education researcher Eduardo Backhoff Escudero turns his attention to Mexico’s results on PISA—the Programme for International Student Assessment—during the political period Mexican officials call the “4T,” or “Fourth Transformation.” That term refers to the sweeping policy agenda launched under former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador and continued by his successor, positioned by supporters as a historic break from past administrations.
PISA, run every three years by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), tests 15-year-olds worldwide in reading, math, and science, offering one of the few internationally comparable snapshots of how a country’s schools are actually performing. Mexico has historically lagged behind many OECD peers on these exams, making the results a recurring flashpoint in debates over education policy and reform.
Backhoff Escudero, a specialist in educational evaluation and a former board member of Mexico’s now-dissolved national testing institute (INEE), brings particular authority to this discussion, having spent years studying how Mexican schools measure learning outcomes and how that data should inform policy.
Because education outcomes shape a nation’s economic and social future, understanding how Mexican students are faring—and why—matters far beyond classroom walls. To see Backhoff Escudero’s full analysis and specific findings on Mexico’s PISA trajectory, read the original article at El Universal.
Source: México en PISA en tiempos de la 4T (eluniversal.com.mx). English version produced with AI assistance.
Image: ccarlstead, BY 2.0 (via Openverse).