Las chicas en pisa y el marcado de casillas.un examen de la perspectiva de los estudiantes sobre las pruebas pisa

The paper moves from the macro-level analysis to the students' perspective on PISA testing. While the high level of correlation between educational attainment and the socio-economic background of the students is empirically well established, the author wants to analyse in his study how individual socio-economically disadvantaged students react to tests and engage in the process of testing. For this, it is important to consider the perspectives of the students themselves. By examining the views of students on PISA testing in one case study the author provides an insight into how the PISA assessment (2009) was experienced by a group of working-class girls in a disadvantaged inner city school in a large urban area in the Republic of Ireland. The thematic analysis of the interviews and the focus groups transcripts revealed two themes: for most students, but especially for those with special educational needs, felt stressed by the content and item difficulty; on the other hand, children who simply ticked the boxes to complete the test in time have implications for the validity of some of the responses to test items. It concludes with the need for a more proactive approach to student support and a more nuanced model of assessment in future PISA tests to take account of social class difference.