Sweden rigs PISA scores to stop decline

Sweden has rigged its PISA scores to mask the decline in Swedish educational achievement. For those who don't know, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) measures 15-year-olds' ability to use their reading, mathematics and science knowledge.

According to SVT:

Between 2000 and 2012, Sweden had a negative trend with steadily declining results in each measurement. In 2012, a bottom listing was made when Swedish pupils' results were well below the average for other OECD countries in all measurement areas.

Thankfully, Sweden's latest PISA score bucked that trend.

Or did it?

It turns out that Sweden has excluded a record number of students from taking the test. 11% of representative students were excluded, while the PISA standards allow 5% exclusion at most.

Why did they do this? According to critics, to exclude immigrants and migrants whose participation would drag the average down.

Even the propagandists at SVT admit that something is wrong:

Also, Åsa Fahlen from the Teachers' Union is concerned that there are no improvements in equality. 

"In schools where students have somewhat tougher conditions, the proportion of qualified teachers is lower. Rectors testify in this study that it is difficult to recruit and retain teachers, and that matters for the results", she says. 

It is 'difficult to recruit and retain' teachers in schools with lots of immigrants. That is code language for 'teachers don't want to deal with the violence and intimidation at those schools'.