although students acquire curriculumbased content knowledge in mathematics reading and science to international levels their performance on the pisa assessment reveals they are persistently less successful in using and applying knowledge than are students in peer countries or oecd member countries on average although lithuania has achieved equitable learning outcomes among its language minority populations others especially rural students lag behind while lithuania has developed a framework of external assessments with which to monitor student learning across primary and secondary schooling it could make fuller use of these assessments in assuring the quality of schools and linking them to the management of schools and classroom instructional practices