Assessment instruments (the spine)
| Instrument | Cycle | Measures | Poland |
|---|---|---|---|
| PISA | 2022 | 15-year-olds — math / reading / science | 489 / 489 / 499 |
| TIMSS | 2023 | Grade 4 — math / science | 546 / 550 |
| PIRLS | 2021 | Grade 4 — reading | 549 |
| PIAAC | 2023 | Adults 16–65 — literacy / numeracy | 236 / 239 |
OECD averages used as anchors — PISA 2022: math 472, reading 476, science 485; PIAAC 2023: literacy 260, numeracy 263. TIMSS/PIRLS scales are centred at 500 by construction. PISA 2018 Poland baselines (confirmed via IBE): math 516, reading 512, science 511.
Context indicators
| Indicator | Poland | Anchor | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public education spending, % GDP | 4.1% | 4.7% (OECD) | OECD Education at a Glance 2025 |
| Teacher statutory salary | rank ~38/44 | among lowest OECD | Education at a Glance 2025 |
| Early-childhood participation (3+) | 96.6% | 90.3% (EU) | EU Education & Training Monitor 2025 |
| Adult participation in learning | 20.3% | 39.5% (EU) | EU Education & Training Monitor 2025 |
| Equity — ESCS math gap | ~96 pts | ~93 (OECD) | PISA 2022 Vol I (snippet-sourced) |
School model, sector and homeschooling
Figures used in the “School model” section. Full caveats — including the list of numbers that failed verification and therefore never reached the site — are in docs/school-models.md in the repository.
| Indicator | Poland | Anchor | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compulsory instruction time (grades 1–8, total) | 5 304 h | 7 642 h (OECD) | OECD Education at a Glance 2025 |
| Teacher autonomy — choice of methods | 95% | 94% (EU) | IBE, TALIS 2024 (grades 5–8, self-reported) |
| Autonomy — curriculum flexibility / assessment | 68% / 74% | 76% / 82% (EU) | IBE, TALIS 2024 (grades 5–8) |
| Influence on policy / feeling valued | 9% / 10% | 15% (EU) / 35% (OECD) | IBE, TALIS 2024 |
| Creative thinking (age 15) | 34 pts | 33 (OECD), 41 (Singapore) | OECD PISA 2022 (Creative Thinking) |
| Curriculum slimmed down | ~20% | 18 subjects, from 1 Sep 2024 | Polish Ministry of Education |
| Pupils in non-public schools | ~7,4% | 7.5% (Eurostat, independent) | Statistics Poland 2024/25 — own calculation |
| Pupils in homeschooling | ~1.2–1.3% | 96.7% in non-public schools | Polish school information system / Ministry |
| 1999 reform — delayed selection | ~100 PISA points | for vocational-track pupils | Jakubowski et al. (quasi-experimental) |
Reproducible backbone
The machine-readable dataset lives at data/indicators.json in the repository, with provenance per value. PISA-math standing was independently recomputed from the Our World in Data grapher CSV (which republishes the OECD table): OECD n = 37, mean 472.4, SD 34.0, Poland 489.0 → z = +0.49. The SD-unit recompute and the age-band cohort test were reproduced by an independent verifier against the raw tables.