pisa4u - The Online Programme for School Improvement Launched by OECD and CANDENA

PARIS, LONDON, WASHINGTON, BONN and LÜNEBURG, Germany, December 6, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Open for registration now under pisa4u.org - up to 10.000 education professionals expected to participate globally 

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), together with CANDENA, have announced today in London the official launch of pisa4u ("PISA For You"), The Online Programme for School Improvement. This unique collaborative online programme empowers educational practitioners to learn from one another, drive meaningful change in school systems around the globe, and create an international database of teaching resources that will be accessible to educators worldwide.

The programme is made possible through the generous support of America Achieves and Deutsche Telekom Stiftung. The Northwest Evaluation Association is associated with pisa4u. It has been conceptually designed, implemented and administered by CANDENA GmbH.

The programme will commence on February 9th, 2017. It will be free of charge to teachers and other education professionals such as administrators, policy makers, and parents. Based on a collaborative eDidactic format, participants will work in teams on a series of successive assignments that guide them towards designing new educational resources and solutions that address their immediate needs. They will benefit from learning resources from experts in education and best practices from international school cases, as well as mentorship and peer feedback throughout the programme. Registration is now open at http://www.pisa4u.org.

Andreas Schleicher, OECD Director for the Directorate of Education and Skills, is excited to welcome pisa4u as "the eyes and ears of PISA." He notes that "By going beyond benchmarking and asking: what exactly can we do to drive improvements, it will make PISA an even more relevant instrument to improve our education systems." Holm Keller, Chairman of CANDENA, adds: "Collectively creating a global repository of best-in-class teaching resources and making it available to every educator in the world free of charge is a major step to more equality in education."

By providing an environment for ideation and co-creation, this programme fills the need of schools and educators to connect and collaborate across silos and regions. Under the PISA umbrella, participants will address gaps in student performance collectively and gain access to teaching resources built by practitioners for practitioners. CANDENA's CEO Alexander Jahn summarizes: "There is no shortage of powerful ideas. But people often lack the relationships and resources for bringing their ideas to life. We are here to fill this void and help everyone find like-minded peers and develop solutions together."

The partnership: 

The ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT is a unique forum where governments work together to address the economic, social and environmental challenges of globalization. The OECD is also at the forefront of efforts to understand and to help governments respond to new developments and concerns, such as corporate governance, the information economy and the challenges of an aging population. The organisation provides a setting where governments can compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practice and work to co-ordinate domestic and international policies.

AMERICA ACHIEVES is a nonprofit organisation dedicated to inspiring and equipping Americans to raise the bar in education and drive investment in what works so that each young person can succeed in a changing world. The America Achieves community draws upon years of experience and demonstrated track records in education, building strong non-profits, advising and shaping local and national policy, and helping to drive large-scale outcomes for young people.

Founded by educators nearly 40 years ago, NORTHWEST EVALUATION ASSOCIATION (NWEA) is a global not-for-profit educational services organisation. More than 7,400 partners in U.S. schools, districts, education agencies, and international schools trust them to offer pre-kindergarten through grade 12 assessments that accurately measure student growth and learning needs, professional development that fosters educators' ability to accelerate student learning, and research that supports assessment validity and data interpretation.

DEUTSCHE TELEKOM STIFTUNG was established in 2003 to strengthen Germany's position as an education, research and technology leader. With an endowment of EUR 150 million, it is one of the country's largest corporate foundations. Its mission is to improve education in the digital world, concentrating on the so called STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

CANDENA is a multi-award winning learning technologies company founded to enable organizations to reach global audiences and engage them with inspiring educational offerings. It is a spin-off from Lüneburg's Leuphana University in Northern Germany and has been created as part of the University's EU Innovation Incubator. For more information visit http://www.candena.com.

Press Contact:
Judith Spiegl
Phone +49 (174) 949-8048
jspiegl@candena.com