The Importance of 15 Years Old Students’ Academic Achievement and the Participation of Albanian Students in the PISA Assessment

Abstract

Albania now it is a candidate place for membership for the European Union which has a range of challenges in advance to overcome. The execution of a qualified education it is the beginning of the integration of Albanian education policies with those European which have decided the education of the youth in one of five primary objectives. In this article you will find a summary of studies that assess the cognitive achievements of 15 year old students in relation to the economic development of countries. Moreover, the author makes an analysis of the results achieved by Albanian students in the Program for International Student Assessment (for 15 years old students) PISA and concerns are presented in relation to poor results in strategic political documents. The author refers specifically to two participations of Albanian students in PISA 2000 and PISA 2009. Based on PISA 2009 reports and in the world literature concerning factors that affect academic achievement of adolescents, in this article are provided some recommendations as well.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n13p509