Ignoring the trend just to fit it to the COVID timeline doesn’t make sense. The data doesn’t match that. If you’re going to ignore consistent drops across all subjects over multiple testing cycles then there is no point in looking at the data at all. COVID was detrimental to a lot of things but it is not the source of every problem.
These developments are part of a longer-term trend. The weakening of performance predates the COVID-19 pandemic in many countries, pointing to deeper and more persistent challenges within education systems.
If I’m reading tea leaves, then so are the authors of the report.
The “drop” we are talking about is something like 505 to 495 or around 2%. That is well with in measurement variability I would say.
Ignoring the trend just to fit it to the COVID timeline doesn’t make sense. The data doesn’t match that. If you’re going to ignore consistent drops across all subjects over multiple testing cycles then there is no point in looking at the data at all. COVID was detrimental to a lot of things but it is not the source of every problem.
There is no trend if the data variability is not statistically significant. What you are doing is likely no better than reading tea leaves 🤷
If I’m reading tea leaves, then so are the authors of the report.
This refers to specific countries where that might be true, but it can’t be derived from the OECD average as presented in the graph.