Why One German Teacher Isn't Shocked by Dismal PISA Scores

Hi, everyone. When we heard about the crushing PISA results for German students (PISA is the big international assessment of 15-year-olds), a worried teacher wrote to us: “It's just so awful. I'm a mom and a teacher at a high school. You grind, you slave away, you try to do everything you possibly can for your own child and your students, but the system leaves almost no room for innovation and change. And we need that so badly!”

“We teachers aren't whining. We're calling out the conditions.”

When we asked if we could send her a few questions, she was in right away, because it matters so much to her that the teacher's side of the story doesn't get lost. “A lot of people are very quick to bash teachers. Our point of view gets written off as complaining. I find that really sad,” she wrote.

A little background on her: she's on the extended school leadership team at a high school in Lower Saxony, Germany, and she teaches the sciences. Even though she earned a PhD, she always knew she wanted to be a teacher. Here's what she told us:

“The bad PISA results don't surprise me”

I'm not surprised by the bad PISA results, because every day at school I see how much kids have changed while the system stays incredibly rigid. There's plenty of research on how to support learning in today's world. Unfortunately, we can only put a little of it into practice, because the school building and its equipment leave very little room for change.

At the same time, change is desperately needed so we can better meet the needs of kids and teens. We're teaching in an outdated system, while students are growing up in a completely different world than, say, ten years ago. Neither we as teachers nor the kids can achieve in this system what we're actually capable of. And this is the kind of result you get.

What's behind the situation in our schools right now

There are lots of small causes. Classes are far too big, there aren't enough teachers overall, and kids and teens are on screens and phones much more than they used to be, so of course they get distracted quickly.

In my opinion, when kids have a phone and an AI tool available around the clock, they conclude that they don't really have to learn anything anymore, because they can just look up the answer in seconds.

The lack of physical activity that comes with more screen time surely plays a role too. I don't think you can point to one single factor. It's a mix of all the changes of recent years and decades. As for AI, I can say that learning to use it critically would be important. But teaching kids that takes time and teaching hours. And we don't have them.

“Homework hardly makes sense anymore”

For my part, I hardly assign any homework, because I don't want to get back AI-generated answers. On top of that, especially with the younger students, I think everyday life looks very different than it did 20 years ago.

Lots of students are in after-school care and don't get home until late. That was true for my daughter, too. Getting her to do homework on top of that was really hard. And some kids get help at home while others have to do everything on their own. That's unequal treatment, and it's not okay.

“I'm trying to change a lot at our school”

I try to get a lot moving at our school. I work on school improvement, I advocate for our students, I try to build relationships with the kids, and I try to teach good lessons, too. And still you see these results and wonder, what else am I supposed to do?

Deep down, though, I know there's nothing more to be squeezed out of the system as it is. Improving a school is a tough job. A professor recently told me it's a bit like having to rebuild an Airbus into a ship while it's in the air.

I thought that comparison was spot on. We can't shut a school down and start over with a new plan. It has to happen while school is running, and it's a monumental task. Sadly, the heart of the job, teaching, often ends up an afterthought, because administration and school improvement take up so much space. That can't be the goal.

“What kinds of change could help”

I see room for change even on a small scale, for example if we could redo the classrooms so they look more inviting. But when you ask the school's governing authority (the local government that owns and runs the building), the answer is always that it's not possible, mostly because of fire codes. So no curtains, no rugs, no beanbag chairs or anything like that.

We urgently need flexible furniture for the open areas, but we just keep getting put off. One quick fix might be for us to pitch in with the students and fix up the classrooms ourselves. But that would be one more task on our plates, and we can hardly manage as it is.

What would I wish for? More teachers, well-trained teachers, teachers with time for a personal conversation, a school where people can feel at home. You may have noticed that this topic weighs on me a lot.

I'd love to change so much, but I keep hitting my limits, both when it comes to resources and when it comes to my own energy. That makes me really sad. Still, I keep doing my best, because the kids deserve it.