Most of the students who perform poorly in PISA share a challenging socio-economic background. Some of their socio-economically disadvantaged peers, however, excel in PISA and beat the odds working against them. This report focuses on resilient students; those who succeed at school despite a disadvantaged background. These individuals show what is possible and provide students, parents, policy makers and other education stakeholders with insights into the drivers of skills and competencies among socio-economically disadvantaged students.

The proportion of disadvantaged students that are successful varies considerably across educational systems. In some education systems, like in Australia, Canada, Finland, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and Portugal close to half of disadvantaged students exceed an internationally comparable benchmark and can be considered successful from an international perspective.

Educating children and youth is a global imperative: ensuring the academic success of all students is necessary to meet the growing demands of a dynamic global economy and to promote individuals’ wellbeing and quality of life. Academic achievement can also promote social mobility. Students who are equipped with greater skills and knowledge are more likely to enter careers that can help them exit a cycle of deprivation and low aspirations by improving their economic and social conditions (Hout and Beller, 2006). Education can improve not only an individual’s life chances, but also the conditions of future generations: better educated parents generally have children who are healthier, who perform better at school and who have better labour market outcomes.

Resilient students come from disadvantaged backgrounds yet exhibit high levels of school success. This chapter answers a question central to this report from a PISA perspective: What does it mean to “beat the odds” and how does this differ across countries?

Chapter 2 characterised resilience and contrasted it with low performance among disadvantaged students. It also explored differences in the main individual background characteristics between these two groups of disadvantaged students: resilient and disadvantaged low achievers.

Chapters 2 and 3 analysed and compared different groups of socio-economically disadvantaged students defined by their performance on the PISA science scale. Chapter 2 classified them according to their performance and studied the main individual characteristics of two groups: resilient students (high achievers) and low achievers. Chapter 3 analysed whether differences in approaches to learning, hours spent and courses taken to learn science and in the types of schools disadvantaged students attend are associated with differences in performance and with an increased likelihood that disadvantaged students will be resilient.

Education can improve the quality of life of individuals and societies. Ensuring that all children achieve their full potential academically is a major policy goal for countries worldwide both for equity and efficiency reasons. Education can in fact play a major role in promoting social mobility and ensuring that children’s future is not determined by the socio-economic background of their parents. At the same time, ensuring that all students perform at high levels is an important component of policies aimed at promoting economic growth and success in a world that demands well-educated citizens and workers.

Annex A1: Defining and characterising student resilience in PISA, Annex A2: A profile of student resilience, Annex A3: Closing the gap? Enhancing the performance of socio-economically disadvantaged students, Annex A4: Conclusions and policy implications, Annex A5: Technical notes