PISA in Spain: rich students have lost more level than vulnerable ones

BarcelonaThe PISA report made public this Tuesday by the OECD shows a significant change in trend in Spain. Beyond reaching the worst level in history, and unlike what happened with the 2022 edition, the Spanish students who have worsened the most are those with a higher socioeconomic level. Specifically, in reading comprehension, the wealthiest students have lost 33 points, double that of the most vulnerable students (-15). The same happens with mathematics: students with a better socioeconomic situation lose 24 points, while those with a lower social status lose 10. In other words, regarding reading, the richest students have lost a year and a half of knowledge in Spain, while their poorer peers have regressed less than a year. The difference is even more abysmal in science: the wealthiest students lose triple the points of the most disadvantaged.

However, despite this more pronounced drop in the level of knowledge of rich students, poorer students continue to achieve worse results. For example, in science—the most analyzed competence in this edition of PISA—, the 25% of students with the highest socioeconomic level outperform by 71 points the 25% of their peers who have a lower socioeconomic level. In this sense, it must be taken into account that PISA divides students into four groups based on the socioeconomic and cultural profile of the family to which they belong.

That the richest students are those who have lost the most level is a phenomenon that has occurred throughout the OECD and which, in fact, has directly surprised those responsible for the PISA report. "The biggest surprise is who has fallen furthest behind. It has not been the most disadvantaged students, but those from wealthy families. This finding points to a much broader challenge than inequality alone," notes the report when speaking about the widespread drop in reading comprehension. However, the authors of PISA also make it clear that there is nothing to celebrate: "Socioeconomic disparities have been reduced by the decline in performance among advantaged students and not by gains among disadvantaged students".

Although presented as a global phenomenon, the Spanish PISA report is clear: "The magnitude of this decline [among the wealthiest students] is clearly higher in Spain [than in the OECD average]". In fact, in mathematics, it is stated that "Spain shows a more pronounced worsening than the OECD average in all socioeconomic groups, especially in the most advantaged one".

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Access to AI, a possible reason?

Although the OECD report does not draw a concrete conclusion about the reason why wealthier students have lost more knowledge level than poorer ones, some differences between the two groups of students can be observed that could explain this difference. In this sense, the PISA radiography concludes two things: the most disadvantaged students have less possibility of accessing technology and using artificial intelligence; and students who do not use AI for specific school tasks outperform their peers in most countries and economies".

Despite this possible hypothesis, the report clarifies that the impact of AI use on results has many shades of gray, as they have also observed that, if students use this technology "moderately" –at most once a week–, they do not obtain worse academic results than their peers who do not use it. On the other hand, they are blunt about the risk of intensive use: "Students who use AI to help them learn frequently (almost every day or more) or occasionally tend to have lower scores than those who are not users".