over the past decade the oecd programme for international student assessment pisa has become the worlds premier yardstick for evaluating the quality equity and efficiency of school systems this chapter introduces pisa and sets the scene for situating the pisa performance of yearolds in the united states against global patterns and trends results from the oecds recent survey of adult skills oecd a show that highly skilled adults are twice as likely to be employed and almost three times more likely to earn an abovemedian salary than poorly skilled adults in other words poor skills severely limit peoples access to belterpaying and more rewarding jobs